The software radio architecture

  • Authors:
  • J. Mitola

  • Affiliations:
  • Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • Year:
  • 1995

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Abstract

As communications technology continues its rapid transition from analog to digital, more functions of contemporary radio systems are implemented in software, leading toward the software radio. This article provides a tutorial review of software radio architectures and technology, highlighting benefits, pitfalls, and lessons learned. This includes a closer look at the canonical functional partitioning of channel coding into antenna, RF, IF, baseband, and bitstream segments. A more detailed look at the estimation of demand for critical resources is key. This leads to a discussion of affordable hardware configurations, the mapping of functions to component hardware, and related software tools. This article then concludes with a brief treatment of the economics and likely future directions of software radio technology