IP CORE FAMILY

Cellular PHY

A 5G NR cell-search receiver for FPGA: from baseband I/Q samples to cell identity and the broadcast message a handset reads at power-on. Blind detection of the primary synchronization signal, energy thresholding and peak location, SSB extraction, OFDM demodulation with a 256-point FFT, and the full physical broadcast channel decode to the Master Information Block. It is generated as bit-exact RTL, proven against the MATLAB 5G Toolbox, and deployed on a Kria KV260 with the synchronization front-end running in the FPGA fabric and the broadcast decode on the host. It recovers three real over-the-air cells, each to a consistent broadcast message.

FLAGSHIP

A receiver that reads real cells off the air

A live 5G downlink was captured over the air, then decoded through the generated receiver. Every headline number below is measured on hardware, not simulated.

3 / 3

Real over-the-air cells decoded to a consistent broadcast message, CRC clean MEASURED

38% fewer LUTs

Detector logic vs the commercial HLS reference on the same part MEASURED

256 MHz

Full receiver, place-and-route on a Kria KV260 MEASURED

0 mismatch

On-silicon spectra vs the reference model, 2,540 beats bit-exact MEASURED

Measured on the deployed device

Resources and timing are Vivado place-and-route on a Kria KV260 (XCK26). The detector comparison uses the reference IP's own part.

Metric	Result	Source
Real over-the-air cells decoded to their broadcast message	3 / 3 CRC clean	consistent MIB, all three cells MEASURED
Detector logic vs the commercial HLS reference (same part)	38% fewer LUTs	5,124 vs 8,669 LUT, and 75% fewer FF MEASURED
Detector logic, place-and-route (KV260)	5,124 LUT / 5,944 FF / 298 DSP / 1 BRAM	Vivado utilization MEASURED
Full receiver clock, place-and-route (KV260)	256 MHz	Vivado Design Timing Summary MEASURED
Full receiver logic, place-and-route (KV260)	6,175 LUT / 6,709 FF / 314 DSP / 4 BRAM	Vivado utilization MEASURED
Deployed overlay timing (KV260, 200 MHz link)	met, +0.403 ns	full overlay place-and-route MEASURED
On-silicon spectra vs the reference model	0 mismatch / 2,540 beats	DMA round-trip on the KV260 MEASURED
Robustness campaign, full parameter space, clean channel	300 / 300 bit-exact	all 1,008 cell IDs, any broadcast message MEASURED
Fading plus carrier offset plus noise	200 / 200	impairment sweep MEASURED
Fixed-point front-end (16-bit and 12-bit spectra)	300 / 300 each	quantized grid, no loss MEASURED

The detector carries nine primary-synchronization correlators, the algorithmically required cost of searching all three cell-group candidates at once with complex matched filters. Each correlator is generated as the family's most efficient folded FIR, which is why the detector uses 38% fewer look-up tables than the commercial high-level-synthesis reference on the same device while running at the line rate.

INSIDE

What the receiver does

The input is the stream of baseband I/Q samples a radio front end delivers after down-conversion. The receiver turns that stream into a cell identity and the decoded broadcast message in four stages, each mirroring a step of the 5G NR standard.

Detect

blind PSS · matched filter

At power-on the receiver does not know the cell group, so it correlates against all three primary-synchronization candidates at once, nine folded correlators in parallel, and searches the sample stream for the peak that marks a synchronization block.

Operationcontinuous, self-rearming

Extract & demodulate

energy · peak · 256-FFT

An energy measure with an adaptive threshold and a peak finder locate the true block start and cut it from the stream. Each symbol is stripped of its cyclic prefix and a 256-point FFT recovers the 240 subcarriers of the resource grid.

OFDM FFT256-point, streaming

Equalize & demap

fine cell ID · channel est · LLR

The secondary synchronization signal pins the exact cell identity. The broadcast pilots give a channel estimate, every subcarrier is equalized, and the constellation is soft-demapped to per-bit confidences.

Cell IDsall 1,008 recovered

Decode & parse

polar · CRC-24 · MIB

Descrambling, a polar list decoder, and a 24-bit CRC recover the 32-bit broadcast payload, which is de-interleaved and parsed into the Master Information Block: system frame number, subcarrier spacing, and the pointers a handset needs for initial access.

FECpolar, CRC-24C

The synchronization and demodulation front end runs at the line rate in the FPGA fabric; the control-heavy broadcast decode runs on the host, split at the narrowest interface in the chain, the recovered spectrum. Need a transmit chain or a different cellular standard? The same flow generates and re-verifies new configurations. See IP customization.

SEE IT RUN

Real captured signals, replayed in your browser

The analyzer below replays a stream of diverse synchronization blocks, the same host decode chain that runs on the KV260 front-end spectra. As the channel worsens, the constellation spreads from a tight QPSK to a noise cloud, the signal-quality history climbs, and the broadcast decode holds bit-exact down to the coding limit before it finally fails.

Live signal-quality analyzer: PBCH constellation spreading under noise, EVM and SNR readout, decoded Master Information Block, and the decode stream, from the same host chain that runs on the KV260 spectra

Launch the interactive demo

The analyzer runs the receiver across the full parameter space and a worsening channel, in your browser, with no server and no radio attached. Every frame is decoded to its broadcast message and checked bit-exact against what was sent.

Proven against an independent standard reference

Every configuration is checked against the MATLAB 5G Toolbox as an independent judge: thousands of standard-compliant blocks, each carrying a known cell identity and broadcast message, decoded and compared bit for bit. On real captured signal the receiver reads three cells to one consistent broadcast message, and the decode corrects a descrambling error present in the reference script.

Request the datasheet

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