IDEAL SOFTWARE RADIO ARCHITECTURE

Explanation
• The top level components of software radio
handset consists of power supply, an antenna,
multiband RF converter and single chip
containing ADC and DAC.
• The on chip general purpose processor and
memory performs the radio functions.
• SDR includes programmable RF bands,
channel access modes.
• SDR uses
ASIC-Application Specific Integrated Circuits
FPGA-Field Programmable Gate Arrays
DSP-Digital Signal Processor
GP-General purpose processor
Cost of the SDR drops down due MIPS
(Millions of Instructions per seconds)
• The processing capacities increased to
MFLOPS to BFLOPS per chips.
• SDR for 1G- Analog, 2G- Digital mobile
cellular radio interface, 3G wideband
applications.
• Multimedia requirements for desktop nd
wireless personal assistants (PDA) continues
to exert downward pressure on parts count and
on power consumptions on such chip sets.
• This trend will push ideal SDR to base station
to mobile station.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF SDR
1. SDR offers greatest flexibility
• Developing software to perform signal
processing offers large opportunities for
improving the development cycle.
• Developing and debugging software is much
easier
• From a service provider perspective, SDR
offers easy upgrades and bug fixes in deployed
system.
• New waweforms as long as the new processor
power, Software updates pushed to updating
systems.
• A successful example of this mobile sttion
running on GSM to support CDMA which
reduces the cost to service provider who do
not have to install new system.
2.SDR provides software reusability
When software is modular and well written it cn
be ported between the processors with minimal
rewritting.
• Not suitable for FPGA based SDR.
• In GPP based code portability is major
advantage.
3. Testing and analysis made easy using SDR
• It is easy to test individual signal procesing blocks,
stimulate performance and test behavior in a closed
system.
• Benefits for two parallel development paths one
from the hardware path and other from the software
path.
• Firstly the technology trend in intergrated circuits is
constantly providing more computational resources.
• Currtently multicore and parallel processing
systems increasingly available on the market
to make SDR even more promisingly
technology.
• Digital emulations of analog circuits to more
recent digital building blocks which do not
have any analog counterpart. This increases
the performance and reduces the overhead and
improved accuracy.
• 1)For radio equipment manufacturers and
system integrators, SDR enables,
• A)radio products to be implemented using a
common platform architecture, allowing new
products to be more quickly introduced in the
market.
• B) Software to be re used across radio
products reducing development costs
dramtically.
• C)over the air or remote reprogamming
allowing bug fixes to occur while radio is in
service reduces the costs associted with the
operation and maintainence.
2)For Radio service providers,SDR enables
a) New features and capababilites to be added to
existing infrastructure without requiring new
capital expenditures.
• B)Using the common platform for multiple
markets.
• C)Remote software downloads through which
capacity can be increased.
3) For end users SDR enables what ever type of
communication needed.
SOFTWARE RADIO ARCHITECTURE
EVOLUTION
REVIEW OF 1G TO 3G MOBILE CELLULAR
RADIO
1G mobile cellular radio
• Voice signal 25khz analog traffic channel.
• Pagers, voice calls .
2G Mobile cellular radios
• Each RF carrier modulated to 270khz bandwidth
to provide 13kbps data rate for each eight users.
• It cooperates digital voice coding,channel symbol
on traffic channels, equalization, training
sequences,framing.
3G mobile cellular radio
• 3G- 200kbit/s , 3.5G, 3.75G
• Supports mobile telephony services, mobile
internet services, modem connected with
laptop or computer.
Network organization and channel data rate
vs code complexity
• Radios with minimal software
PTT, FDM includes no software in physical layer.
Commercial needs
Military architecture
 Architecture based geographical regions

• Coverage
• Inteference mitigration
• Radio resource control
• Voice, data , multimedia services
• Gos
• Qos
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF SDR
ARCHITECTURE OF MODERN SDR
DIGITAL SIGNAL RX
DIGITAL SIGNAL TX
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
• A modern SDR the application programming
interfaces assures software portability across
many very different hardware platform
implementations.
• Also supports wide diversity of applications
without having to rewritten for each
waveform and application.
• It has the computational resources for specific
waveform.
• SDR is decomposed into a stack of hardware and
software functions with open standard interfaces.
• SDR have to place the waveform in a standardized
way.
• The waveforms and applications installed,used and
replaced by other applications.
• To make the waveform and applications wave
standardized , it is necessary to make hardware
platform present a set of highly standardized
interfaces.
• The radio waveform installed,activated,
deinstalled and the way in which the radio
uses.
• The SDR stack starts with hardware and one or
more data buses that moves information
among the various processors.
• On the top of the harware architecture several
standardaized layers of the software installed.
• It includes boot loader , OS, Board support package
(i/p and o/p drivers to control all the interfaces)
• HAL-Hardware abstraction layer provides the
methods for GPPs to communicate with DSP and
FPGA processor.
• SCA- Software communication architecture used for
identifying the available computational resources of
the radio matching those resources to required
resources for the applications.
• SCA built on a interface called POSIX (portable
operating system interface) to perform the file
management function and computational task
scheduling.
• CORBA( Common object request broker architecture
provides standard method of software to
communicate with each other.
• XML provides requirements for the each applications.
• Also provides information helps to determine how to
distribute and install the software objects.
• It must also provide security
• Challenges: H/w or S/w should allow RF
external features to be added if or when
required for a particular application or
customer requirement.
 Cognitive radio
• A cognitive radio is a transceiver which
automatically detects available channels in
wireless spectrum and accordingly changes its
transmission or reception parameters so more
wireless communications may run
concurrently in a given spectrum band at a
place.
• This process is also known as dynamic
spectrum management.
• A cognitive radio, as defined by the
researchers at Virginia Tech, is "a software
defined radio with a cognitive engine brain"
• In response to the operator's commands, the
cognitive engine is capable of configuring
radio-system parameters.
• These parameters include "waveform,
protocol, operating frequency, and
networking".
• It functions as an autonomous unit in the communications
environment, exchanging information about the
environment with the networks it accesses and other CRs.
• A CR "monitors its own performance continuously", in
addition to "reading the radio's outputs"; it then uses this
information to "determine the RF environment, channel
conditions, link performance, etc.", and adjusts the
"radio's settings to deliver the required quality of service
subject to an appropriate combination of user
requirements, operational limitations, and regulatory
constraints"
• These processes are described as "reading the
radio's meters and turning the radio's knobs"
• A CR is aware of its surrounding environment,
learns from the environment and adapts its
internal states to statistical variations in the
incoming RF stimuli by making corresponding
changes in certain operating parameters in
real time.
• The primary objectives of the cognitive radio
are to provide highly reliable communications
whenever and wherever needed and to utilize
the radio spectrum efficiently.
• The key issues in the cognitive radio are
awareness, intelligence, learning, adaptivity,
reliability, and efficiency.
• The operation of the cognitive radio is based
on the notion of spectrum holes, i.e., bands of
frequencies assigned to a primary user, but, at
a particular time and specific geographic
location, they are not used by that user.
• The objective of the cognitive radio is to
identify the spectrum holes, and to provide
the means for making the spectrum holes
available for secondary users.
 RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM AND
REGULATIONS
1.APPLICATIONS:The number and variety of different
radio applications is virtually
unbounded and rapidly evolving.
For example:
• Broadcast communications
(television, radio)
• commercial communications (emergency services
radios)
• industrial communications and fleet management,
aeronautical communications,
• military communications,
• personal communications (cell phones,
two-way radios),
• wireless networks (personal, local area,
metropolitan),
• Satellite communications.
Coverage
• The need to offer these applications to an ever
broader audience and eliminate any spatial
constraints in the use of the applications.
Duty Cycle
• The most popular of these applications will be
used for an everincreasing percentage of the
time, ultimately following the popular personal
dictum of “always on, always connected.”
• Performance
• Not only are these applications being deployed
broadly and used all the time, the demands for
ever-increasing levels of performance for the
popular applications require increasing
allocation of spectral bandwidth.
• since there is a direct correlation between
allocated bandwidth and the sustainable data
rate that a channel can support
C = 2B (for binary signals) OR
C = 2B log2(M) (for multilevel signals)
• C is the capacity,
• B is the bandwidth
• M is the number of signal levels.
Allocation, Reallocation, and Optimization
• Value of spectrum rise on demand
• Existing application to retired, replaced, realocated
regulations spectrum for unliscensed access.
• Bands such as wifi,bluetooth,radio tagging(RFID)
• The most widely used band for unlicensed
activities is at 2.4 GHz, but large new bands at 5-6
GHz arenow available around the world for new
applications.
 Regulatory issues
• Deciding not to allow it (and hence do nothing).
• Enabling existing license holders to allow
cognitive access into their own bands if they
chose to.
• Licensing cognitive access to particular bands.
• Exempting cognitive equipment from the need
for licensing with appropriate restrictions on
when, where, and how they might operate.
 DETERMINE THE RULES TO ENTRY

• The regulatorwill typically seek rules that

ensure a very low probability of interference
to theincumbent users of the band while at
the same time placing the minimum possible
restrictions on the cognitive device.
• The regulator also needs to focus on the
potential for interference between cognitive
devices as their usage grows
• Avoiding interference is generally a very difficult
technical problem as well as a challenging political
issue.
• For example, if cognitive devices are to be based on
sensing technology that measures the existing
signal strength to determine whether a particular
channel is currently in use, then the regulator must
determine the signal level down to which the
device must be able to sense to ensure that there is
a very low likelihood of interference.
• As experience has shown, determining such a
level is very complex.
• Some times the “hidden node” problem
occurs.
 Regulatory Implications of Different
Methods of Cognition
• Geographical Databases
• To what accuracy should the device know its
location?
• Who will maintain the database? Will there
be one provider for all bands or a
• separate database per band? What will the
commercial arrangements be?Will
• there be monopoly concerns?
• What availability is needed for the database? Is
it acceptable for it to be off-air for substantial
periods?
• Howwill devices download updated versions of
the database?
• Howfrequently should they do so? What will
the loading on the spectrum be as a result?
• What about the dynamic use of the spectrum
for frequencies that are only occasionally in use?
 Beacon Reception
• While this resolves the sensing problem at the cognitive
device it raises many
other problems:
• Who provides the beacon signal? What are the commercial
arrangements,
and if there is only one provider, are there competition
concerns?
• Howis the information the beacon transmits kept up to
date, especially where
the licensed services are changing rapidly?
• What spectrum is used for the beacon?
• What technical parameters and protocols are
used by the beacon transmitter?
• How to prevent the beacon signal from being
received outside its intended coverage area
and as a result being applied incorrectly, and
conversely how to make sure that it is
available to all cognitive devices in the target
area?
• Should there be separate beacons for separate
frequency bands or one beacon for all the
bands into which cognitive access is allowed?
• Is it acceptable for the use of cognitive
devices to be denied access if the beacon fails
or is taken off-air for any reason?