Ever since the prediction of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism was published in 1865, the existence of electromagnetic waves moving at the speed of light gave Heinrich Hertz a challenge to prove the existence of radio waves and eventually in 1886, he invented the world’s first radio wave transceiver.

Since then, wireless communication has evolved over the years, from radio to mobile telephony, satellite to Bluetooth, and all getting more sophisticated each day. Today, wireless communication has made life so much easier that office workers are no longer desk bound and anyone can be virtually contactable around the world.
Henceforth, the group aims to design a wireless communication module capable of transmitting data at rates up to 1Mbps operating in the 2.4 GHz free ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band. This module, to be used in conjunction with a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) interface card, will facilitate 2 or more devices to communicate wirelessly between each other. A VHDL (Very high speed integrated circuits Hardware Description Language) model of a digital engine will be designed and loaded into the FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) of the PCI card. This VHDL digital engine which acts as a controller between the wireless device and the PCI bus is capable of handling and providing arbitration of up to 64 individuals. The design of the digital engine also includes a capability which allows priority communication for an individual if the need for immediate attention arises.

The group chose to use the LAIPAC TRF-2.4G wireless transceiver that operates at the frequency range of 2.4 2.524 GHz ISM band. This transceiver, being relatively cheap, has a built in antenna, error checking, operates at 1Mbps and has an ultra low power consumption, thus making it all the more ideal for the project.
This wireless communication module can be used in various applications where 1 Mbps data rate transmission is sufficient, for example, in a group of communicating robots, alarm and security systems, wireless keyboards, the mouse, joystick or even wireless video streaming, etc...

Upon completion of this wireless module, the group hopes it would be of use in either commercial applications like robot soccer, maze finder or even in industrial field applications because of its low power consumption and robustness for the hostile environment.

Dr Michael Cantoni, Khoa Nguyen, Dr Peter Dower, Colin Tiang