Implementing Software Defined Radio

Software Defined Radio makes wireless communications easier, more efficient, and more reliable. This book bridges the gap between academic research and practical implementation. When beginning a project, practicing engineers, technical managers, and graduate students can save countless hours by considering the concepts presented in these pages. The author covers the myriad options and trade-offs available when selecting an appropriate hardware architecture. As demonstrated here, the choice between hardware- and software-centric architecture can mean the difference between meeting an aggressive schedule and bogging down in endless design iterations. Because of the author’s experience overseeing dozens of failed and successful developments, he is able to present many real-life examples. Some of the key concepts covered are: Choosing the right architecture for the market – laboratory, military, or commercial, Hardware platforms – FPGAs, GPPs, specialized and hybrid devices, Standardization efforts to ensure interoperability and portabilitym State-of-the-art components for radio frequency, mixed-signal, and baseband processing. The text requires only minimal knowledge of wireless communications; whenever possible, qualitative arguments are used instead of equations. An appendix provides a quick overview of wireless communications and introduces most of the concepts the readers will need to take advantage of the material. An essential introduction to SDR, this book is sure to be an invaluable addition to any technical bookshelf.

Based on the popular Artech House classic, Digital Communication Systems Engineering with Software-Defined Radio, this book provides a practical approach to quickly learning the software-defined radio (SDR) concepts needed for work in the field. This up-to-date volume guides readers on how to quickly prototype wireless designs using SDR for real-world testing and experimentation. This book explores advanced wireless communication techniques such as OFDM, LTE, WLA, and hardware targeting. Readers will gain an understanding of the core concepts behind wireless hardware, such as the radio frequency front-end, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, as well as various processing technologies. Moreover, this volume includes chapters on timing estimation, matched filtering, frame synchronization message decoding, and source coding. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is explained and details about HDL code generation and deployment are provided. The book concludes with coverage of the WLAN toolbox with OFDM beacon reception and the LTE toolbox with downlink reception. Multiple case studies are provided throughout the book. Both MATLAB and Simulink source code are included to assist readers with their projects in the field.

The availability of the RTL-SDR device for less than $20 brings software defined radio (SDR) to the home and work desktops of EE students, professional engineers and the maker community. The RTL-SDR can be used to acquire and sample RF (radio frequency) signals transmitted in the frequency range 25MHz to 1.75GHz, and the MATLAB and Simulink environment can be used to develop receivers using first principles DSP (digital signal processing) algorithms. Signals that the RTL-SDR hardware can receive include: FM radio, UHF band signals, ISM signals, GSM, 3G and LTE mobile radio, GPS and satellite signals, and any that the reader can (legally) transmit of course! In this book we introduce readers to SDR methods by viewing and analysing downconverted RF signals in the time and frequency domains, and then provide extensive DSP enabled SDR design exercises which the reader can learn from. The hands-on SDR design examples begin with simple AM and FM receivers, and move on to the more challenging aspects of PHY layer DSP, where receive filter chains, real-time channelisers, and advanced concepts such as carrier synchronisers, digital PLL designs and QPSK timing and phase synchronisers are implemented. In the book we will also show how the RTL-SDR can be used with SDR transmitters to develop complete communication systems, capable of transmitting payloads such as simple text strings, images and audio across the lab desktop.

Today’s wireless services have come a long way since the roll out of the conventional voice-centric cellular systems. The demand for wireless access in voice and high rate data multi-media applications has been increasing. New generation wireless communication systems are aimed at accommodating this demand through better resource management and improved transmission technologies. The interest in increasing Spectrum Access and improving Spectrum Efficiency combined with both the introduction of Software Defined Radios and the realization that machine learning can be applied to radios has created new intriguing possibilities for wireless radio researchers. This book is aimed to discuss the cognitive radio, software defined radio (SDR), and adaptive radio concepts from several aspects. Cognitive radio and cognitive networks will be investigated from a broad aspect of wireless communication system enhancement while giving special emphasis on better spectrum utilization. Applications of cognitive radio, SDR and cognitive radio architectures, spectrum efficiency and soft spectrum usage, adaptive wireless system design, measurements and awareness of various parameters including interference temperature and geo-location information are some of the important topics that will be covered in this book. Cognitive Radio, Software Defined Radio, and Adaptive Wireless Systems is intended to be both an introductory technology survey/tutorial for beginners and an advanced mathematical overview intended for technical professionals in the communications industry, technical managers, and researchers in both academia and industry.

The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) establishes an implementation-independent framework for the development of Joint Tactical Radio System software configurable radios. It specifies the Operating Environment, services and interfaces that applications use. Software Defined Radio: The Software Communications Architecture focuses on the issues and benefits associated with developing a radio system in compliance with the SCA specification. This book provides a comprehensive, practical introduction to building a SCA-compliant system taking the reader through the historical and conceptual background to help filling in the gaps between the intent of the SCA specification and the practice. Key features: Presents a practical approach to the Software Communications Architecture Provides an example-oriented understanding of the usage of the SCA and thus allows the reader to extend the concepts and practice to more complicated multi-processor distributed environments. Covers the Operating Environment: a Core framework, CORBA middleware, POSIX operating systems and Domain profiles. Features an accompanying website with appendices, and links to further information on the SCA. This invaluable reference will provide applications programmers, designers, professional researchers, wireless manufacturers and operators with an indispensable guide to the Software Communications Architecture. Advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students on mobile and wireless communications courses will also find this to be an excellent guide to the topic.

Software defined radio (SDR) is a hot topic in the telecommunications field, with regard to wireless technology. It is one of the most important topics of research in the area of mobile and personal communications. SDR is viewed as the enabler of global roaming and a platform for the introduction of new technologies and services into existing live networks. It therefore gives networks a greater flexibility into mobile communications. It bridges the inter-disciplinary gap in the field as SDR covers two areas of development, namely software development and digital signal processing and the internet. It extends well beyond the simple re-configuration of air interface parameters to cover the whole system from the network to service creation and application development. Reconfigurability entails the pervasive use of software reconfiguration, empowering upgrades or patching of any element of the network and of the services and applications running on it. It cuts across the types of bearer radio systems (Paging to cellular, wireless local area network to microwave, terrestrial to satellite, personal communications to broadcasting) enable the integration of many of today's disparate systems in the same hardware platform. Also it cuts across generation (second to third to fourth). This volume complements the already published volumes 1 and 2 of the Wiley Series in Software Radio. The book discusses the requirements for reconfigurability and then introduces network architectures and functions for reconfigurable terminals. Finally it deals with reconfiguration in the network. The book also provides a comprehensive view on reconfigurability in three very active research projects as CAST, MOBIVAS and TRUST/SCOUT. Key features include: Presents new research in wireless communications Summarises the results of an extensive research program on software defined radios in Europe Provides a comprehensive view on reconfigurability in three very active research projects as CAST (Configurable radio with Advanced Sodftware Technology), MOBIVAS (Downloadable MOBIle Value Added Services through Software Radio and Switching Integrated Platforms), TRUST (Transparently Re-configurable Ubiquitous Terminal) and SCOUT (Smart User-Centric Communciation Environment).

Software defined radio (SDR) is one of the most important topics of research, and indeed development, in the area of mobile and personal communications. SDR is viewed as an enabler of global roaming and as a unique platform for the rapid introduction of new services into existing live networks. It therefore promises mobile communication networks a major increase in flexibility and capability. SDR brings together two key technologies of the last decade - digital radio and downloadable software. It encompasses not only reconfiguration of the air interface parameters of handset and basestation products but also the whole mobile network, to facilitate the dynamic introduction of new functionality and mass-customised applications to the user's terminal, post-purchase. This edited book, contributed by internationally respected researchers and industry practitioners, describes the current technological status of radio frequency design, data conversion, reconfigurable signal processing hardware, and software issues at all levels of the protocol stack and network. The book provides a holistic treatment of SDR addressing the full breadth of relevant technologies - radio frequency design, signal processing and software - at all levels. As such it provides a solid grounding for a new generation of wireless engineers for whom radio design in future will assume dynamic flexibility as a given. In particular it explores * The unique demands of SDR upon the RF subsystem and their implications for front end design methodologies * The recent concepts of the 'digital front end' and 'parametrization' * The role and key influence of data conversion technologies and devices within software radio, essential to robust product design * The evolution of signal processing technologies, describing new architectural approaches * Requirements and options for software download * Advances in 'soft' protocols and 'on-the-fly' software reconfiguration * Management of terminal reconfiguration and its network implications * The concepts of the waveform description language The book also includes coverage of * Potential breakthrough technologies, such as superconducting RSFQ technology and the possible future role of MEMS in RF circuitry * Competing approaches, eg all-software radios implemented on commodity computing vs advanced processing architectures that dynamically optimise their configuration to match the algorithm requirements at a point in time The book opens with an introductory chapter by Stephen Blust, Chair of the ITU-R WP8F Committee and Chair of the SDR Forum presenting a framework for SDR, in terms of definitions, evolutionary perspectives, introductory timescales and regulation. Suitable for today's engineers, technical staff and researchers within the wireless industry, the book will also appeal to marketing and commercial managers who need to understand the basics and potential of the technology for future product development. Its balance of industrial and academic contributors also makes it suitable as a text for graduate and post-graduate courses aiming to prepare the next generation of wireless engineers.

Software-Defined Radio (SDR) has been a hot topic both in academic and industrial research already for several years, yet no final definite solution to the implementation architecture for it has emerged. As SDR is a key enabling technology for taking the next step, implementing a true Cognitive Radio, it is high time to overview and discuss the proposals for SDR architecture. The computing platforms for SDR have not been addressed thoroughly and holistically in the literature by now. There are a few books that analyse from a theoretical point of view algorithms, software and hardware techniques to implement SDRs, but a clear point of reference for computer architects is missing. The approaches in this book can be divided into three main categories: 1) Architectures exploiting parallelism by extending single-processor environment (such as VLIW, SIMD, TTA approaches); 2) Multi-core platforms distributing the computation to either a homogeneous array or a set of specialized heterogeneous processors; and 3) Reconfigurable architectures exploiting fine-grain, coarse-grain, or hybrid reconfigurability.