scikit-comm: simulation toolbox for communication systems

This python package contains a collection of DSP routines and algorithms to perform numerical simulations on simple communication systems. Its functionality is divided into transmitter, channel, and receiver subsystems and - at its current state - contains very limited functionalities.

This project was initially started by Lutz Molle and Markus Nölle at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW), Berlin.

Installation

Installation via pip

The current stable version of this package can be installed via pip using the following command

pip install scikit-comm

Installation from GitLab repository

Further, the current development status can be installed by cloing the repository and installing locally via pip using the following commands

git clone https://gitlab.com/htw-ikt-noelle/scikit-comm.git
cd scikit-comm

and then either regular install with

python -m pip install ./

or install in “editable” mode with

python -m pip install -e ./

Sources of information

The documentation can be found at Readthedocs, while the code is hosted at GitLab.

General overview and first steps

The ‘signal’ object

The ‘signal’ object can be seen as the ‘heart of the toolbox’. It contains all information to describe a modulated data signal. The object can consist of multiple ‘dimensions’, while each dimension represents in general a two dimensional (or complex) data signal. The structure looks as follows:

def Signal:    
  self.n_dims
  self.samples
  self.center_frequency
  self.sample_rate
  self.bits
  self.symbols
  self.symbol_rate
  self.modulation_info
  self.constellation

Many modules and methods take this signal object as input or output variables. Others in contrast take only a subset of the signal attributes (e.g. the sampled signal (sig.samples)) as input or output.

Package structure

Besides the signal object, there are multiple other modules avaialable, which provide different functionalities for the simulation of a communication system:

Module	Description
skcomm.channel	basic function to emulate a transmission channel
skcomm.filters	method to filter a discrete signal
skcomm.instrument_control	methods to communicate with laboratory equipment
skcomm.pre_distortion	methods to perform identification and pre-distortion of linear systems
skcomm.rx	receiver (dsp) subfunctions
skcomm.tx	transmitter (dsp) subfuntions
skcomm.utils	utility functions (mostly used by other methods)
skcomm.visualizers	methods to visualize the data signal