Jarno Knuutila

Embedding SDL implemented protocols into DSP

Specification and Description Language (SDL) is an efficient tool for specifying and implementing complex real time systems, such as communications protocols. A Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) has been implemented using the language. The source C code for the protocol application is automatically generated from SDL. In this paper, the embedding of the generated protocol into a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) is described. As the high abstraction SDL model does not contain any dependencies to the target operational environment the application is adapted to DSP using tailored environment functions. These functions convert the asynchronous signalling used inside the SDL system into physical events of the DSP. In addition, as no operating system is used, the environment functions must implement other services required by the SDL generated application, such as platform clock and interrupt handling.