Implementation of QAM Modulator on FPGA with ADC/DAC

The development in the modulation techniques had been witnessed since last two decades which demands reliable transmission of information with higher data rate. Modulation scheme such as QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) is one of the widely used modulation techniques in cellular communication because of its high efficiency in power and bandwidth. 16-QAM is a kind of digital modulation scheme which transmits four bits per symbol on two orthogonal carriers; one in phase and the other one is in quadrature phase. Hence the data rate is increased by a factor of four. It is quite preferable as there is a balance between obtaining the higher data rates and maintaining an acceptable bit error rate keeping the energy of the constellation constant. Development of MATLAB model of 16 QAM MODEM and its simulation is done. High speed ADC/DAC card FMC150 interfaced with Xilinx FPGA Virtex-6. VHDL code for 16 QAM Modulator was developed and ported on Xilinx FPGA Virtex-6.