Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] VOLK division between complexes

[Andy Walls]

On Thu, 2016-05-12 at 16:24 -0400, address@hidden
wrote:
> Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 16:09:56 -0300
> From: Federico Larroca
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] VOLK division between complexes

> Hello everyone,
> We are on the stage of optimizing our project (gr-isdbt). One of the
> most consuming blocks is OFDM synchronization, and in particular the
> equalization phase. This is simply the division between the input
> signal and the estimated channel gains (two modestly big arrays of
> ~5000 complexes for each OFDM symbol).
> Until now, this was performed by a for loop, so my plan was to change
> it for a volk function. However, there is no complex division in VOLK.
> So I've done a rather indirect operation using the property that a/b =
> a*conj(b)/|b|^2, resulting in six lines of code (a multiply conjugate,
> a magnitude squared, a deinterleave, a couple of float divisions and
> an interleave). Obviously the performance gain (measured with the
> Performance Monitor) is marginal (to be optimistic)...
> Does anyone has a better idea?

I have a different idea, but I doubt it is better.  The transformation

w = Log (z) = ln|z| + jArg(z)

transforms multiplication, division, power and root operations into
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division  operations
respectively.

So if c = Log(a), d = Log(b), then a/b = Exp(c-d) .

If along with your complex division, you also have a lot of additional
complex multiplcation, power, and/or (real) root operations to perform,
then the transform *might* give you a savings.  A savings would also be
more likely, if you don't need to invert the transformation at the end
(i.e. no need for z = Exp(w)). 

Regards,
Andy

>  Implementing a new kernel is simply out of my knowledge scope.
> Best
> Federico