Software-defined radio

A software-defined radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system which uses software for the modulation and demodulation of radio signals.

An SDR performs significant amounts of signal processing in a general purpose computer, or a reconfigurable piece of digital electronics. The goal of this design is to produce a radio that can receive and transmit a new form of radio protocol just by running new software.

Software radios have significant utility for the military and cell phone services, both of which must serve a wide variety of changing radio protocols in real time.

The hardware of a software-defined radio typically consists of a superheterodyne RF front end which converts RF signals from and to analog IF signals, and analog to digital converter and digital to analog converters which are used to convert a digitised IF signal from and to analog form, respectively.

Software-defined radio can currently be used to implement simple radio modem technologies. In the long run, software-defined radio is expected by its proponents to become the dominant technology in radio communications.

Operating principles

Ideal concept

The ideal scheme would be to attach an analog to digital converter to an antenna. A computer would read the converter, and then software would transform the stream of data from the converter to any other form.

An ideal transmitter would be similar. A computer program would generate a stream of numbers. These would be sent to a digital to analog converter connected to a radio antenna.

The ideal scheme is not practical, however.

Practical receivers

Current (2003) digital electronics are too slow to receive typical radio signals that range from 10 kHz to 2 GHz. An ideal software radio would have to collect and process samples at twice the maximum frequency at which it is to operate. Real software radios solve this problem by using a mixer and a reference oscillator to heterodyne the radio signal to a lower frequency.

The above mixer changes the frequency of the signal. The phase information becomes more difficult to detect in it. Many digital encoding systems depend on phase encoding. The classic solution is to mix and digitize two channels, using a reference oscillator that produces two signals that are the same frequency. However, one of the frequency outputs lags the other by 90 degrees of a cycle. Thus, the two sets of samples provide the needed phase information.

Another related problem is that the information about the bit-timing is lost when the frequency changes. The phase information helps recover that as well.

The sampling works best if it is at a simple multiple of the protocol's symbol rate. Since the distant transmitter and the receiver are linked only by the radio, this means that the sampling speed should somehow adapt to the distant radio's symbol rate. The phase information may therefore be used to adjust the effective sampling rate, as well.

A good software radio must operate at any symbol rate within a wide range of rates, in order to be compatible with many protocols, so this adaptive control is crucial. It can be implemented either with a hardware linkage to the converter, or in software.

Any signals above the sampling frequency would "interfere" with the sampling, causing spurious signals to appear in the data stream at a frequency that's the difference between the signal and the sampling frequency. For this reason, a low-pass analog electronic filter must precede the digital conversion step.

Real analog-to-digital converters lack the discrimination to pick up sub-microvolt, nanowatt radio signals. Therefore a low noise amplifier must precede the conversion step. The amplifier introduces its own problems. If spurious signals are present (which is typical), these compete with the desired signals for the amplifier's power. They introduce distortion in the desired signals, or may block them completely. The standard solution is to put a filter between the antenna and the amplifier, but this reduces the radio's flexibility- the whole point of a software radio. Real software radios have two or three analog "channels" that are switched in and out. These contained matched filters, amplifiers and sometimes a mixer.

History

One of the first software radios was a U.S. military project named SpeakEasy. The primary goal of the SpeakEasy project was to use programmable processing to emulate more than 10 existing military radios, operating in frequency bands between 2 and 200 MHz. Further, another design goal was to be able to easily incorporate new coding and modulation standards in the future, so that military communications can keep pace with advances in coding and modulation techniques.

SPEAKeasy phase I

From 1992 to 1995, the goal was to produce a radio for the U.S. Army that could operate from 2 MHz to 2 GHz, and operate with ground force radios (frequency-agile VHF, FM, and SINCGARS), Air Force radios (VHF AM), Naval Radios (VHF AM and HF SSB teleprinters) and satellites (microwave QAM). Some particular goals were to provide a new signal format in two weeks from a standing start, and demonstrate a radio into which multiple contractors could plug parts and software.

The project was demonstrated at TF-XXI-AWE, and met all these goals. There was some discontent with certain unspecified features. Its cryptographic processor could not change context fast enough to keep several radio conversations on the air at once. Its software architecture, though practical enough, bore no resemblance to any other.

The basic arrangement of the radio receiver used an antenna feeding an amplifier and down-converter (see mixer) feeding an automatic gain control, which fed an analog to digital converter that was on a computer VMEbus with a lot of digital signal processors (Texas Instruments C40s). The transmitter had digital to analog converters on the PCI bus feeding an up converter (mixer) that led to a power amplifier and antenna. The very wide frequency range was divided into a few sub-bands with different analog radio technologies feeding the same analog to digital converters. This has since become a standard design scheme for wide band software radios.

SPEAKeasy phase II

The goals were to get a more quickly reconfigurable architecture (i.e. several conversations at once), in an open software architecture, with cross-channel connectivity (the radio can "bridge" different radio protocols). The secondary goals were to make it smaller, weigh less and cheaper.

The project produced a demonstration radio only fifteen months into a three year research project. The demonstration was so successful that further development was halted, and the radio went into production with only a 4 MHz to 400 MHz range.

The software architecture identified standard interfaces for different modules of the radio: "radio frequency control" to manage the analog parts of the radio, "modem control" managed resources for modulation and demodulation schemes (FM, AM, SSB, QAM, etc), "waveform processing" modules actually performed the modem functions, "key processing" and "crytographic processing" managed the cryptographic functions, a "multimedia" module did voice processing, a "human interface" provided local or remote controls, there was a "routing" module for network services, and a "control" module to keep it all straight.

The modules are said to communicate without a central operating system. Instead, they send messages over the PCI computer bus to each other with a layered protocol.

As a military project, the radio strongly distinguished "red" (unsecured secret data) and "black" (cryptographically-secured data).

The project was the first known to use FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) for digital processing of radio data. The time to reprogram these is an issue limiting application of the radio.

Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

The JTRS is a U.S. and allied program (NATO participates) to produce radios which provide flexible and interoperable communications. Examples of radio terminals which require support include hand-held, vehicular, airborne and dismounted radios, as well as base-stations (fixed and maritime).

This goal is achieved through the use of SDR systems based on an internationally endorsed open Software Communications Architecture (SCA). This standard uses CORBA on POSIX operating systems to coordinate various software modules. The SCA documentation is freely available at the JTRS website.

The program is providing a flexible new approach to meet diverse warfighter communications needs through software programmable radio technology. All functionality and expandability is built upon the Software Communications Architecture (SCA).

Despite its origins in the military domain, the SCA has been widely accepted in commercial applications.

Amateur software radios

The typical amateur software radio (see amateur radio) uses a direct conversion receiver (see the ARRL Handbook, 1999 for a suitable dual mixer design). The conversion is to an audio frequency, 0 to 20 kHz. A fast PC operates custom (amateur-written) software as the signal processor. A commercial high-quality stereo-input audio card operates as the analog-to-digital converter.

More recently, GNU Radio uses a USB interface and high-speed set of ADC/DACs, combined with reconfigurable free software.

The above set of equipment is adequate to let amateurs operate within their limited radio bands.

Uses include every common amateur modulation: morse code, single sideband modulation, frequency modulation, radioteletype, slow-scan television and packet radio. Amateurs also experiment with new modulation methods. Some amateurs are now experimenting with COFDM, using the "DREAM" software for Digital Radio Mondiale.

Software Defined Radio & RFID Technology

As well as transmitting audio information, SDR may have value in the emerging field of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), where devices operate on various frequencies using various communication protocols. In 2001, the Massachusetts Instititute of Technology's Auto-ID Center sponsored research by ThingMagic Corporation to develop an RFID reader that used SDR. A direct descendant of this device is now available commercially, and other companies are developing RFID readers that use SDR.

External links

Wireless communications | Radio technology | Amateur radio

Softwarestyret radio | Software Defined Radio | Radio logicielle | Ohjelmistoradio

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