"Modnum" toolbox
eng - fr
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XLIM (University of Limoges) - INRIA (Unit of Rocquencourt)
Alan Layec
alan.layec@inria.fr

Date of last update
July 01 2008

What is ?

"MODulations NUMériques" is an open and free toolbox for the modelling and the simulation of communication systems.
This toolbox proposes blocks, schematics and in-line functions of base-band PSK/QAM modulations in order to build communication chains in Scilab/Scicos environment.
Components used to build spread-spectrum communication systems, such Pseudo Noise sequence generators (Quasi-Chaotic, PN and Gold sequence generators) are also included.
This toolbox also includes miscellaneous scopes for Scicos, such 3D trajectory Scope and other scopes used for analysis of digital transmission : Eye Diagram Scope, Scattered Diagram Scope and Spectrum Analyzer Scope.
Schematics and blocks of integer and fractionnal frequency synthesizer components (Phase/Frequency Detector, VCO, Delta-Sigma modulators,...) are provided.
This toolbox also focus on the simulation of chaotic systems and gives schematics of simulation of Chua's, Rössler's, Van Der Pol's systems (and others).
You can download Modnum here.

News

July 01 2008 : Modnum_42 Release Candidate

A new version of "Modnum" is avialable. (RC42)

It fixs and replaces the previous version and works for the Scicos versions >= 4.2.1.

The toolbox have been rearranged to give the autonomy of the low-level computational routines library from the scilab environment.

"Modnum_42" will become an official version when it will be fully tested under GNU Linux and Windows.

Decembre 06 2007 : Modnum_412 update

"modnum_412" fixs and replaces "modnum_41". So that version becomes the supported version for bugs fix and for the windows/linux installation. This version have been realized for the new version of scicos : scicos 4.2.

That version includes :

Interfacing scilab functions/"modnumlib" library
- New set of scilab functions have been implemented from some low-level routine of the modnum library. You can find now basic functions to build base-band DS spread spectrum communication systems. See for exemple the scilab simulation script CDMA_sim.
- Some new functions appears in modnum library, such embedded awgn channel, Rayleigh noise generator (both scilab function and scicos block), discrete autocorrelation...
Windows installer
- This have been done from the software "Inno Setup" : an executable file is then now avialable for windows binary version of the toolbox.
Documentation update
- The "modnum" documentation look follows the scicos 4.2 documentation.
- Blocks icons for the new "pal tree" of scicos 4.2 have been implemented.
Bugs fix
- Reviewed compilation process for users of linux version of scilab that uses the feature "make install".
- The toolbox embeds some scilab header files (.h) to disable some compilation errors that occurs for features of the new graphics (NG).
- Reviewed computational functions concerning C functions that use dynamic allocation : allocations are now always done in the flag 4 and unallocation is always used in flag 5. That disable leak of memory for intensive use of "modnum" block sets in scicos.
- Reviewed use of "stacksize" scilab function when buildind and loading "modnum" in scilab : that allow to use the toolbox on low memory ressource computer.

For more informations concerning development and maintenance of "modnum", you can display now the file Version.txt that you can find at the root directory of the toolbox.
Don't hesitate to contact alan.layec@inria.fr for all questions concerning "modnum".

May 26 2007 : Modnum_41 update

Since "modnum_3", Modnum has been rewieved and the archive has been renamed to "modnum_41".
(the version number of the archive follows the version number of Scicos).

Deep modifications has occurred in the building process of the toolbox and in the routines of scopes to allow its future "life" in next versions of Scilab/Scicos (versions >=5).

This update have been done close to the current development of scilab/scicos @ INRIA in the METALAU project.

The main news of this updated version are :

New blocks
- Spectrum analyzer scope
  That "brick wall" scope is based on the autocorrelation method detailled in the scilab macro "pspect" (from C. Bunk's Scilab Signal library).
- Generic symbol modulator/demodulator blocks
  This blocks enable use of arbitrary constellations.
- Gaussian/Square Raised Root Cosine/Raised Cosine Filter blocks
  They have been duplicated from the "generic RIF filter block" for user facilities.
  A new palette (Filter palette) appears in Modnum. This palette is dedicated to the digital signal filtering.
Rewritten blocks
- Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog Convertor blocks
  Old blocks (CAN_f/CNA_f) written in fortran have been redesigned in C language and includes some static non-linear mistmaches.
- Discrete Voltage Controlled Oscillator block
  Some digital computational errors have been detected in VCO blocks concerning edge dates computation.
- Discrete and Event discrete buffer blocks
  This blocks have been totally rewritten for user facilities. One can now use scilab global variables to export Scicos results in the Scilab workspace.
- Scope blocks
  All scopes dedicated to the analysis of the simulated results of communication systems have been rewritten using the New Graphics (NG) low-level functions of Scilab.
  - Eye diagram scope
  - Vector scope
  - Trajectory/scattered diagram scope
Reviewed blocks and bugs fix
- Up-sample block
- Random Generator block
- Phase Shift Keying, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation modulator/demodulator blocks
Low-level routines library "modnumlib" is now under GPL license
Functions of documentation generator has been removed
Modnum is only now dedicated to communication systems.
For people which have succed to use embedded documentation generator of modnum_3, please contact alan.layec@inria.fr to have a standalone linux version of the documentation generator.
Scilab html documentation is up to date
Most of blocks and diagrams are now documented both in french and english.
(it still stays many things to do concerning this point but work is in great progress)
Building process via builder script and windows compilation of routines have been reviewed
This enables good compilation with tools included in scilab (i.e ilib_for_link).
With that, appropriate DLLs can be generated with the builder script and binary version of Modnum for windows can be downloaded from this web site.

**Figure 1:** Toolbox internal organization
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This toolbox contains several elements :

A low-level computational routines library (in C language) including common functions of base band communication and tri-state PFD.
A set of Scicos palettes including blocks with C language computational functions and extented interfacing functions :
- Communication palette for PSK/QAM transmissions,
- Filter palette for digital signal processing,
- Non-linear palette with common non-linearities encountered in digital processor.
- Phase Locked Loop palette for the design and simulation of integer and fractional frequency synthesizers,
- Sinks palette to display frame-based signal,
- Sources palette to compute random process (and others).
Many examples of Scicos diagrams and Scilab simulation scripts.

Downloads

Official version : Modnum_412

Source (for versions of scilab >= 4.1.2)

Linux/Windows : modnum_412_src.tar.gz

Binaries (for scilab 4.1.2)

Windows (VCExpress/Inno Setup) : modnum_412_bin.exe
Linux (gcc 4.2) : modnum_412_bin.tar.gz

Compatibility versions

For people which have used modnum_3/modnum_41 and that encounters compatibility problems with simulations in modnum_412 please send your Scicos diagram to alan.layec@inria.fr to do a manual translation.

Modnum_41

reviewed version -linux and windows- : modnum_41_all.zip

Modnum_3

reviewed version -linux and windows- : modnum_3_all.zip
original modnum web site : here

Modnum_42 Release Candidate

Source (for versions of Scicos >= 4.2.1)

Linux/Windows : modnum_RC42_src.tar.gz

Binaries (for Scicos 4.2.1)

Windows (VCExpress/Inno Setup) : modnum_RC42_bin.exe
Linux (gcc 4.3) : modnum_RC42_bin.tar.gz

Install

On linux platform, builder script use gcc/g77 to build the toolbox.
On windows platform, builder script is able to use :
- MSVC to build the toolbox
  or
- lcc-win32 (see scilab-x.x/lcc/Readme_LCC.txt for instructions of installation).
Future improvement of builder script should also build the toolbox for Solaris/HP-Unix platform.

The instructions of installation are given in the README file in the root directory of the toolbox.

English version : Readme_en.txt
French version : Readme_fr.txt

With the improvement of the building process, support for the installation of source versions for linux and windows platforms is now provided. For any problems concerning installation of modnum please report to alan.layec@inria.fr.

Documentation

Source versions and binary versions of the toolbox include a Scilab html documentation.

Two languages are supported : english and french.

You can view the toolbox documentation with this following links :

HTML format
- English version : HTML_eng
- French version : HTML_fr
PDF format
For the time being PDF documentation of Modnum are no more available.
Why ?
Because Modnum toolbox contains so many figures that PDF files of the documentation are really too "big" to be downloaded.
PDF documentation will be rewritten and available on this web site in a next update of the toolbox.