Case Study: Harman Becker Automotive Systems achieves early design verification and 75% faster BER testing with MathWorks

Harman Becker Designs and Verifies OFDM Radio Receivers

Harman Becker Automotive Systems needed to develop standards‑compliant OFDM radio receivers that could support multiple digital broadcast standards (DAB, DRM) on a single device while accurately estimating bit error rate (BER) and verifying fixed‑point performance long before committing to hardware. To meet this challenge the company adopted MathWorks Model‑Based Design using MATLAB, Simulink, and Communications Toolbox.

Using MathWorks tools, Harman Becker built floating‑point Simulink baseband models (including a custom DQPSK block), simulated RF impairments and fading channels, analyzed BER with Communications Toolbox, then replaced blocks with fixed‑point C S‑functions to perform bit‑true verification on target DSP hardware. MathWorks enabled early, executable verification that improved cross‑team communication, accelerated baseband development, and reduced the time to perform BER testing by at least 75%, allowing key design decisions months—if not years—earlier than before.

Harman Becker Automotive Systems

Axel Westenweller

Senior Development Engineer, Signal Processing