For carrying out the said simulations, we were faced with a sticky situation. The problem was in choosing the software and/or language for doing the simulation. The trick was in choosing one that was quite powerful and yet easy to learn. And we had to look no further that the communication engineer's tool of choice- MATLAB. Under the simple looking command terminal of MATLAB was a real behemoth capable of processing the most complex of filters with the ease of setting up a PowerPoint presentation. Although ease of use was an important criterion, a few of the actual reasons for our giving preference to MATLAB were :
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MATLAB being a computational language rather than a programming language, as such it lends itself to a lot of flexibility with respect to solving complex equations. |
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With its vast library of mathematical function libraries, solving various communications equations pertaining to OFDM is a breeze when compared to a scalar non-interactive programming language such as C or C + +. |
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And last, but nevertheless the least, I stood to learn a very useful mathematical tool !!! |
So what exactly is MATLAB ?
MATLAB is a high-performance language for technical computing. It integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation. Typical uses include:
| Math and computation |
| Algorithm development |
| Modeling, simulation, and prototyping |
| Data analysis, exploration, and visualization |
| Scientific and engineering graphics |
| Application development, including Graphical User Interface building. |
MATLAB is an interactive system whose basic data element is an array that does not require dimensioning. This allows you to solve many technical computing problems, especially those with matrix and vector formulations, in a fraction of the time it would take to write a program in a scalar non-interactive language such as C or Fortran.
The name MATLAB stands for
matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally written to provide easy access to
matrix software developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK projects, which together
represent the state-of-the-art in software for matrix computation. MATLAB has
evolved over a period of years with input from many users. In university
environments, it is the standard instructional tool for introductory and
advanced courses in mathematics, engineering, and science. In industry, MATLAB
is the tool of choice for high-productivity research, development, and analysis.
MATLAB features a family of application-specific solutions called toolboxes.
Toolboxes allow you to learn and apply specialized technology. Toolboxes are
comprehensive collections of MATLAB functions (M-files) that extend the MATLAB
environment to solve particular classes of problems. Areas in which toolboxes
are available include signal processing, control systems, neural networks, fuzzy
logic, wavelets, simulation, and many others.
