Implementation of an IEEE 802.11a transmitter in VHDL for Altera Stratix II FPGA

Abstract: The fast growth of wireless local area networks today has opened up a whole new market for wireless solutions. Released in 1999, the IEEE 802.11a is a standard for high-speed wireless data transfer that much of modern Wireless Local Area Network technology is based on. This project has been about implementing the transmitter part of the 802.11a physical layer in VHDL to run on the Altera Stratix II FPGA. Special consideration was taken to divide the system into parts based on sample rate. This report contains a brief introduction to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing and to the IEEE 802.11a physical layer as well as a description of the implemented system.