An Open Source, FPGA-Based Bit Error Ratio Tester for Serial Communications

Basford, M. J.; Pena-Quintal, A. E.; Greedy, S.; Sumner, M.; Thomas, D. W. P.

Abstract

This paper discusses the design of a FPGA-based Bit Error Ratio (BER) measurement system in a serial communication link under electromagnetic emissions. The BER measurement is an important figure for the reliability of digital communication systems. Generally, the equipment involved to measure BER is prohibitively expensive. This paper demonstrates the design, construction and verification of an Open Source System (OSS), with all design files being made freely accessible to the public for use in general or highly specialized BER measurements. The methods used for programming the Hardware Description Language (HDL) modules were done as simple as possible to facilitate easy integration into experiments for academics with limited experience in HDL usage.

Citation

Basford, M. J., Pena-Quintal, A. E., Greedy, S., Sumner, M., & Thomas, D. W. P. (2020). An Open Source, FPGA-Based Bit Error Ratio Tester for Serial Communications. In Proceedings of 2020 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility - EMC EUROPE. https://doi.org/10.1109/emceurope48519.2020.9245786

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: 2020 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility - EMC EUROPE
• Start Date: Sep 23, 2020
• End Date: Sep 25, 2020
• Acceptance Date: Apr 20, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 6, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 23, 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 7, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 7, 2021
• Series Title: International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility - EMC EUROPE
• Series ISSN: 2325-0364
• Book Title: Proceedings of 2020 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility - EMC EUROPE
• ISBN: 9781728155791
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/emceurope48519.2020.9245786
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5435025
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9245786
• Additional Information: © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.