WP5 will implement hardware based on the air interfaces designed in WP3. The prototypes developed within WP5 will form the baseline component for the use of MAGNET Beyond air interfaces in PNs, providing state of the art end user interfaces by connecting to existing portable and hand-held devices. WP5 will investigate the most appropriate architectures to support the MAGNET Beyond air interfaces. A key aspect for the implementation of these prototypes is their ability to exhibit low power figures compliant with mobile devices.

The MAC, baseband, RF and antennas building blocks of both UWB-FM and MC-SS systems developed during MAGNET will be refined, implemented and integrated in two kinds of systems. The first ones referred to as Consumer Off The Shelves (COTS) board based prototypes consist of COTS boards with programmable components on which the building blocks will be mapped. The second ones, referred to as custom prototypes, will consist of MAGNET Beyond specific boards that fulfil specific requirements that are not offered by COTS systems in terms of portability (e.g., size, power consumption, power supply, host interface).

In the meantime, the requirements and specifications for the bridging functionality towards host terminal will be defined. On one side the bridge will be connected to the PAN prototype MAC, while on the other side it will be connected to a standard interface available on the host such as Compact Flash, USB, IEEE1394 or Ethernet. Bridging UWB-FM and MC-SS domain will also be analysed and it is expected that at least one of the prototypes will implement both interfaces to provide some bridge between these 2 domains.

In-depth investigations of ultra low power approaches based on integrated silicon chips will be carried out to push the MAGNET HW components as close as possible to the target market devices. Some of these integrated circuits might be implemented on the prototypes if silicon integration is mandatory to enable functional specifications. As illustrated in Figure 6.10, WP5 will address from RF to L2 and bridging connectivity to host devices in order to enable the MAGNET air interfaces realisation.

WP5 is divided into the following tasks

• Task 1 Link level block completion and test
• Task 2 IC design of critical subsystems
• Task 3 Custom prototype design and implementation
• Task 4 Prototypes integration and test

Task 1 Link level block completion and test

WP5 main objectives are

• To provide the link level block completion, testing and IC design of critical subsystem enabling the UWB-FM and MC-SS air interfaces implementation
• To investigate and choose the implementation solutions of low power, low complexity techniques targeted in the air interface base band blocks
• To perform the prototype integration and test of all the building blocks for the PN-platforms designed in WP1 and WP6