An Introduction to the Software Defined Radio (SDR) Technology

1. An Introduction to the Software Defined Radio (SDR) Technology Taewoon KIM

2. Future Wireless Communication • The increasing number of services and applications introduced various radio protocols.

3. One device for many standards

4. The needs for SDR technology • Advances in wireless communication technology produced various radio protocols. • Global roaming is highly required. • Poor use of the available bandwidth • Adding a new function into the existing infrastructure is very hard! • Adopting new standards takes much time. • H/W technology evolves fast.

5. Definition of SDR • Definition - Radio communication system where components that have typically been implemented in hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detectors. etc.) are instead implemented using software (Wikipedia) - Radio in which some or all of the physical layer functions are software defined (SDR forum) Multi-mode and multi-standards communication platform!!

6. What is SDR? • Software Defined Radio … • …is a radio communication system. • …can tune to any frequency band. • …can transmit or receive any modulation. • …does all these things by means of software. • The goal of SDR technology is to produce a radio that can receive and transmit virtually any existing or new form of radio protocol just by running new software. • It can reduce the cost of radios and system is easily reusable, reconfigurableand upgradeable without any change of existing hardware.

7. What is SDR? Software Defined Radio Hardware Radio

8. Conventional HW Radios • High Freq. in RF section • Medium Freq. in IF section • Low Freq. in Baseband section

9. Generic SDR Platform • RF section, contains the analog front-end that converts to and from the IF. • IF section contains ADC and DAC, and the digital down and up converters. • Baseband section that performs the bulk of the waveform and protocol processing.

10. Realization: GNU Radio • It’s a free software defined radio • A platform for signal processing on commodity hardware • Create a practical environment for experimentation & product delivery • Expand the “free software ethic ethic” into what were previously hardware intensive arenas • Sites • http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio • http://www.opencores.org/projects/pci

11. Why is SDR Emerging? • A single Hardware fits-to-all: multi-standard, multi-band and multi-functional systems • Easy software upgrade for add on functionalities • Customization of a single generic hardware for diverse needs • Higher levels of software reusability • Lower costs to meet new user demands • Less time to embody new standards

12. SDR Advantages • Complete Base band processing digital – Reconfigurable • Software upgrading of commercial radios – Future proof • Generic hardware can be used for a variety of applications – Inventory • Software prototyping faster and cheaper than hardware prototyping – Time to market • Libraries of software radio components are easily created and shared – Reuse • Digital processing of signals is ideal, unencumbered by the non-linearities that plague analog hardware-Reliability

13. Potential Services and Applications of SDR

14. Drawbacks • Large computational power is needed • Especially, IF section (modem, DDC/DUC) • Power consumption • Battery sizes • Complexity • Multimode devices • A/D performance • Accuracy, linearity, sampling rate, resolution • Higher initial costs

15. Advanced Techniques • Radios with intelligence • Smart antennas • Multi-user detection • Interference cancellation • Adaptive techniques • Over-the-air (OTA) provisioning and software download

16. SDR Technology Advancement Path

17. Related Activities _Asia

18. Related Activities _Europe

19. Related Activities _North America

20. Conclusion • SDR is useful for • Saving cost (not necessary replacing hardware) • Multi-band and multi-standard • Enhancing the system performance of functions • SDR has.. • Many opportunities and challenges