Case Study: Alcatel‑Lucent achieves 30% reduction in development time and eliminates two hardware cycles with MathWorks (MATLAB & Simulink)

Alcatel-Lucent Develops DPD System for Multicarrier GSM Transceivers with Model-Based Design

Alcatel‑Lucent faced the challenge of developing a multicarrier GSM transceiver that maintained PA efficiency while meeting stringent adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) requirements across a 20–25 MHz bandwidth. To reduce hardware cycles and move rapidly from algorithm development to production DSP and FPGA code, Alcatel‑Lucent used MathWorks’ Model-Based Design tools, notably MATLAB and Simulink, to model the PA and transceiver chain and evaluate digital predistortion (DPD) algorithms.

Using MathWorks tools, the team modeled, simulated, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop tested DPD algorithms, generated VHDL for the FPGA and C for a TI C64+ DSP, and deployed the code without production changes. The MathWorks-based workflow cut development time by 30%, eliminated two hardware development cycles, and enabled approximately 90% algorithm reuse across 2G/3G/4G and multistandard transceivers.

Alcatel-Lucent

Rudolf Wessel

Engineering Manager