Frequency stability of software-defined radios - part II. Modeling for simulation studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24425/mms.2025.155811Abstract
In the first part of this paper, we measured the frequency stability of widely available software-defined radio (SDR) platforms. The second part focuses on the problem of modeling the frequency instability of these devices, which is necessary in the process of designing new applications using simulation studies. This modeling is based on the measurement results obtained in the first part. For this purpose, the nature of changes in the instantaneous frequency of the received signal as a function of time is analysed, separating them into two parts, i.e., a slow-changing trend and a fast-changing random component. A method of estimating the trend and fitting the normal distribution to fast frequency fluctuations is proposed to model the instantaneous frequency changes for several popular SDRs (including ADALM-PLUTO, B200mini, bladeRF, and USRP). The assumption about normal distribution for fast fluctuations is verified using the chi-square test. The models obtained enable the generation of signals in simulation studies that realistically represent the frequency variability observed in the measurements. The proposed approach enables simulation tests on SDR-based solutions, considering the impact of frequency instability without conducting long-standing or complex laboratory experiments.References
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