Towards Developing Multi-Function Wireless Receiver Systems Using Heterogenous SoCs: Simulation, Implementation and Evaluation

This dissertation describes the hardware implementation and analysis of a multi-function wireless receiver system to perform Joint Radar Communication on Domain-focused Advanced Software-reconfigurable Heterogeneous (DASH) system-on-chip (SoC). As the problem of spectral congestion becomes more chronic and widespread, Electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) based systems are posing as a viable solution to this problem. RF Spectral Convergence enables better utilization of available spectrum by reducing wastage and enabling multi-function tasks. There is a need forhigh-performance processors that can operate at low power while being flexible and easy to program. Coarse-scale heterogeneous processors such as DASH SoC have been developed to demonstrate the feasibility of such architectures. DASH SoC addresses domain requirements of spectral convergence by offering high throughput rates with minimal energy expenditure. It also offers a high degree of programmability which enables adaptability to the domain of real-time joint communications and radar systems for applications such as spectral situational awareness, autonomous vehicular navigation systems, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). The hardware implementation of a joint-radar communications receiver on DASH SoC validates these claims. Task scheduling is optimized by using an imitation learning-based runtime scheduler implemented on the DASH SoC platform. Modern applications such as 5G New Radio (5GNR) require varying frame processing requirements, which are also implemented to demonstrate compatibility with current applications. General Matrix Multiply (GEMM) is an integral kernel within the Joint Radar and Communications (JRC) receiver; an estimation model is developed to study characteristics of GEMM implementation on domain adaptive processor (DAP) accelerator core within DASH SoC.