A Software-Defined Radio Simulation Method using Observer Patterns

A problem with object-oriented simulation models is that internal model states are hidden and cannot be monitored easily. Object-oriented models are essentially black-box models. This article describes a method to expose the internal states of an object-oriented simulation model. Exposure of the states is achieved though application of the Observer software pattern in the form of data sources. Data sources can be connected to a data sink which then receives data from the sources. Connections between data sources and sinks are made though a broker. The globally accessible broker holds information on the available data sources. Some implementation details of a simulation framework based around the method are discussed. The framework is tested using a small simulation example on I/Q imbalance. Although the focus is on software-defined radio and communication systems, the concepts presented here can also be applied to other types of object-oriented simulation. Keywords—OOP, simulation, communication systems