L1(Physical layer) job Prospectus

Physical layer is the OSI layer-1 which is the interface between Layer-2(MAC/RLC) and medium(wired or wireless). Physical layer does many functions. Major among them are scrambling, modulation,Forward Error Correction and so on.

Physical layers of various wireless standards/technologies incorporate above mentioned basic modules. In addition each has specific FEC modules, interleaving techniques and frame structure(with unique pilots and preamble sequences) to take care of different data rate and coverage requirements.

The goal of L1(physical layer) job mainly to design, develop and test the physical layer modules. This is achieved in various programming languages. Usually simulation model is developed in MATLAB/Simulink. The same is used as reference for C/C++ model development targetted for processor/DSP. Development either in VHDL or Verilog is carried out for porting on FPGA or for ASIC fabrication.

The jobs in physical layer domain are available to develop ATE test system development or test and measurement application development. Testing jobs are also available to provide support to development teams to conduct daily/weekly regression,basic sanity testing,interoperability tests,conformance tests, field trials,inter RAT (IRAT) tests and so on.

Candidate having knowledge of anyone physical layer such as WLAN,WiMAX,GSM,CDMA or LTE will be an advantage to pursue the job as physical layer professionals.

Demand across the industries:

• Wired modem industry
• Wireless modem industry
• Telecom/Wireless companies

Skills desired:

• Good knowledge in wireless system and embedded system
• Physical Layer 1 (L1) development exposure in Mobile(UE) or base station side(NodeB/eNodeB)
• TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM/GPRS, HSPA+ or LTE standard based L1
• C language coding
• Real time programming concepts
• Linux/Unix development environment
• DSP concepts
• Use of Test equipments viz. R&S CMU-200, R&S CMW-500, Agilent 8960, anritsu
• source control management and version control

Companies hiring for L1(Layer1) physical layer job:

• Qualcomm
• Ericsson
• Intel
• Samsung
• NSN

Expected Salary Range:

Experience	Payscale
Entry level	Rs 225,000 - Rs 350000 per year
Mid-career	Rs 425,450 - Rs 15,00000 per year

RF and Wireless tutorials

WLAN 802.11ac 802.11ad wimax Zigbee z-wave GSM LTE UMTS Bluetooth UWB IoT satellite Antenna RADAR