CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
With the emergence of new standards and protocols, wireless communications is
developing at a furious pace. Rapid adoption of the wire line-base Internet has led to
demand for wireless Internet connectivity but with added capabilities, such as integrated
services that offer seamless global coverage and user-controlled quality of service (QoS).
The challenge in creating sophisticated wireless Internet connectivity is compounded by the
desire for future-proof radios, which keep radio hardware and software from becoming
obsolete as new standards, techniques, and technology become available.

The concept of integrated seamless global coverage requires that the radio
support two distinct features: first, global roaming or seamless coverage across geographical
regions; second, interfacing with different systems and standards to provide seamless
services at a fixed location. Multimode phones that can switch between different cellular
standards like IS-95 and Global System Mobile (GSM) fall in the first category, while the
ability to interface with other services like Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11 networks falls in the
second category.

Existing technologies for voice, video, and data use different packet structures,
data types, and signal processing techniques. Integrated services can be obtained with
either a single device capable of delivering various services or with a radio that can
communicate with devices providing complementary services.

1
 CHAPTER 2

SOFTWARE RADIO
2.1 What is Software Radio?

A rigorous and exact definition of the software (SW) radio concept does not yet exist,
even though the need to precisely clarify what is intended for SW radio has been proclaimed
by many. Software-Defined Radio (SDR) refers to the technology where in software modules
running on a generic hardware platform consisting of DSPs and general purpose
microprocessors are used to implement radio functions such as generation of transmitted
signal (modulation) at transmitter and tuning/detection of received radio signal
(demodulation) at receiver.

Figure 2.1 An ideal SW Radio Receiver

2
 In a Actually, transmitters and receivers employed in radio mobile systems are based
on the traditional super-heterodyne scheme (Fig. l), where RF and IF stages are totally
analog, while the digital component is only present in the BB stage, usually built in ASIC
technology. On the contrary, the “ideal” scheme of a SW radio transceiver has a very
reduced analog stage: the only analog components are the antenna, the band pass filter,
and the low noise amplifier. 4/D conversion is done immediately at RF in order to digitally
elaborate the signal on a completely reprogrammable board.

2.2 Objectives:

A rigorous and exact definition of the software (SW) radio concept docs not yet exist, even
though the need to precisely clarify what is intended for SW radio has been proclaimed by
many. Some definitions often found in the literature are:

 Flexible TX/RX architecture, controlled and programmable by SW.

 Signal processing able to replace, as much as possible, radio functionalities.
 “Air interface downloadability”: radio equipment dynamically reconfigurable by
downloadable SW at every level of the protocol stack
 SW realization of terminals “multiple mode/standard”
 its capability to operate in multiservice environments, without being constrained to
a particular standard, but able to offer, in theory, services of any already
standardized systems or future ones on any radio frequency band. The compatibility
of an SW radio system with any defined radio mobile is guaranteed by its
reconfigurability, that is, by digital signal processing (DSP) engine repro-
grammability, which, in real time, implement radio interface and upper layer
protocols. It is important to note that by DSP is really intended the concept of digital
signal processing, and therefore not only DSP chipsets in strict sense, but also field
programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and general-purpose processors, such as the
INMOS transputer and Intel Pentium/ MMX [4, 51, or combinations of these. At
present, the development of an SW radio system remains very utopian because of
several problems, overall technological ones, which at the moment do not seem easy
and quick to solve. Anyway, SW radio, as defined, represents an ideal target for R&D,
hopefully reached around 2005-2010.

3
 CHAPTER 3

Characteristics of a Software Radio

3.1 Introduction

Implementation of the ideal software radio would require either the digitization at the
antenna, allowing complete flexibility in the digital domain, or the design of a completely
flexible radio frequency (RF) front-end for handling a wide range of carrier frequencies
and modulation formats. The ideal software radio, however, is not yet fully exploited in
commercial systems due to technology limitations and cost considerations.

Figure 3.1: Model of software radio

4
We can divide TDM into two different schemes: synchronous and statistical. We first discuss
synchronous TDM and then show how statistical TDM differs. In synchronous TDM, each
input connection has an allotment in the output even if it is not sending data.

3.2 The Software Radio Transceiver

3.2.1 A Traditional Super Heterodyne Receiver

Actually, transmitters and receivers employed in radio mobile systems are based on the
traditional super-heterodyne scheme (Fig. l), where RF and IF stagcs are totally analog, while
the digital component is only present in the BB stage, usually built in ASIC technology.

Figure 3.2 : A Traditional super heterodyne receiver

On the contrary, the “ideal” scheme of a SW radio transceiver has a very reduced analog
stage: the only analog components are the antenna, the band pass filter, and the low noise
amplifier (LNA) . 4/D conversion is done immediately at RF in order to digitally elaborate the
signal on a completely reprogrammable board. The SW radio receiver illustrated in Fig. 2 has
been defined as ideal because there are several matters that make it, at the moment, far
from realizable. First of all, it is not reasonable to use a single RF stage for a multiband
system due to the impossibility of building antennas and LNAs on a bandwidth ranging from
hundreds of megahertz to units or tens of gigahertz. data after though, in the future, the
only way to guarantee the multiband feature will be to have more RF stages, depending on
the radio band used for the SW radio system (i.e., 900 MHz for 2G mobile systems such as

5
GSM and 2 GHz for 3G systems such as UMTS). Besides, jitter effects make A/D conversion
directly at RF very difficult .

3.2.2 A Digital Radio Receiver

TDM The development of a digital radio transceiver presents more than a few
difficulties at both the IF and BB stages. For IF, as, of course, for RF, sevcral technological
challenges are linked to A/D and D/A converter performance, since a trade-off choice is
necessary between sampling rate and resolution; in fact, the higher the sampling rate, the
lower the resolution (i.e., the number of bits of the A/D converter representing the
samples). Today’s technology, for example, allows to reach a 1 G sample/s sampling rate
with 6-8 resolution bits, decreasing to 100 M samples with 10 bits, arriving at 150 k samples
with 16 bits [6,7]. The bit number can be insufficient, taking into account that the signals to
be sampled can have high dynamic range: the GSM signal, for example, has a dynamic range
around 100 dB (from -104 dBm for the minimum received signal to 13 dBm of the nearest
blocker). The limited bandwidth of the converters, frequency jitter, and inter-modulation
products are problems afflicting the sampled signal which remain to be solved. A first
evaluation, to obtain an effective representation of GSM and UMTS waveforms with their
dynamic range, confirmed in literature, could require at least 17-20 bits resolution

6
 Figure 3.3 Digital Radio Receiver

3.2.3 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR SOFTWARE RADIO IMPLEMENTATION

Synchronous As stated before, an SW radio system should be able to adapt itself to

a large variety of cellular systems, already standardized or developed in the future, by
means of a common hardware platform, adaptable to any radio interface by simply
changing the software running on it

Figure 3.2.3: Technical issues in implementing an SW radio terminal.

7
 The manufacturers are likely to develop proprietary products (i.e., hardware
platforms that arc not compatible each other). Therefore, SW radio represents a means to
make the radio interface independent of the hardware platform.

3.2.4 Proprietary software for-each hardware platform

Each manufacturer produces its HWISW solution independent of other companies.

The advantage for each company is the possibility to offer on the market a differentiated
product with respect to competitors .In this case the market decides which product will
have more success. The software developed by the manufacturers is optimized for the
hardware platforms on which it runs. All the disadvantages in this scenario concern the
operators: they will have to deal with nonstandard products and also have to manage
software uploading on user terminals. It is worthwhile to remark that each user can freely
buy a terminal from any manufacturer, and the operator will have to load on that terminal
the specific software that runs on it.

3.2.5 Standardization of a common hardware platform

This solution would noticeably simplify the scenario because it would eliminate every
proprietary solution developed by the manufacturers. This scenario implies a unique
hardware platform and only one software to be developed (one code fits all). The main
disadvantage would fall this time on manufacturers that could not differentiate their
product from competitors.

8
 Figure 3.2.5: Hardware/software inter-operation in an SW radio system.

3.2.6 Resident compilers and/or real-time standard Operating system

Telephone The compiler generates an executable code specific to the hardware

platform on which the code will run. The executable code is generated from a source code
which can be the same for all hardware platforms. The source code, once it has been
written, may run anywhere (write once, run anywhere). This could be the scenario that
earns more consensus because it keeps all the advantages and eliminates the disadvantages
of the previous scenarios.

One suitable candidate language for source code development could be Java ;with
proper modifications for real-time operation needs. Most people have confidence in Java’s
success as a development environment for many user applications; Texas Instruments, for
example, has already developed DSPs able to process Java byte code instructions.

Java can be described as a development environment based on an object-oriented

language, the syntax of which is very similar to C+ +, The basic principle of Java is that the
applications must reside on remote systems, whereas in local systems the resident software
is reduced in order to limit memory size. When needed, the application software can be
downloaded from the network (Internet) and stored until it serves.

9
 First, Java’s applications are precompiled in order to produce the so-called Java byte
code, which is not an object code but a higher-level code, very compact, and therefore
easier to store and download from the network (Fig. 6). The Java byte code is then
downloaded from the network and submitted to the last compilation phase, by means of a
resident compiler in the local system (to be precise, JAVA’S compiler is an interpreter) in
order to produce an executable code. The resident compiler represents the so-called Java
virtual machine, which guarantees the independence of the software from the hardware
platform on which the code runs.

Figure 3.2.6 : Execution of a Java application.

3.2.7 DESIGN STEPS OF SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO

10
The Radio design has always required a broad set of design skills. Although one might
initially assume that software-defined radios would require simply a higher level of digital
signal processing programming skill than conventional radio design, this is not the case; a
higher skill level is needed for almost all aspects of the radio design because of the
dependency of the radio subsystems. A generic design procedure for SDR follows and
demonstrates the interaction between the various subsystems of the radio design.

 Systems engineering—Understanding the constraints and requirements of the

communication link and the network protocol allows the allocation of sufficient
resources to establish the service given the system’s constraints and
requirements. For instance, constraints on the range and transmit power
constrain the modulation types and data rate that can be supported. For a well-
defined standard, the systems engineering aspects, such as the routing protocol,
are to a great extent predetermined. However, as additional flexibility is allowed
in defining the network, systems engineering and optimization becomes a
complex task. In an ideal SDR with the ability to change a number of system
parameters in realtime, optimizing an active communications session is a major
challenge.
 RF chain planning—The ideal RF chain for the software-defined radio should
incorporate simultaneous flexibility in selection of power gain, bandwidth, center
frequency, sensitivity, dynamic range, higher IP3 and 1-dB compression point, and
spurious free radiation [7]. The conventional RF transceiver section is of super
heterodyne type, however, in SDR various RF architectures like direct conversion
[9], digital IF sampling [10], and band pass sampling [8] architectures are
suggested. Very wideband RF amplifiers, filters and oscillators circuits are
required to cover the entire band of interest. Achieving strict flexibility is
impractical and trade-offs must be made. If the communication system is
constrained to selected commercial or military bands, this optimization problem is
simplified. Nevertheless, with a software-defined radio design, it is possible to
compensate for some of the inadequacies of the RF components in the digital
domain. Compensations for power amplifier distortion or power management of
the RF circuitry, for example, can be accomplished using pre-distortion.

11
 Analog to digital conversion and digital to analog conversion selection— Analog
to digital conversion and digital to analog conversion for the ideal softwar defined
radio is difficult to achieve, and in practice, the selection requires trading power
consumption, dynamic range, and bandwidth (sample rate)[11]. Analog to digital
conversion and digital to analog conversion selection is closely tied to the RF
requirements for dynamic range and frequency translation. Channelization
requirements also impact the selection of the analog to digital conversion and
digital to analog conversion. Current conversion technology is very limited and is
often the weak link in the over all system design. There are post-digitization
techniques based on multi-rate digital signal processing that can be used to
improve the flexibility of the digitization stage.
 Software architecture selection—The architecture should allow for hardware
independence through the appropriate use of middleware, which serves as an
interface between applications-oriented software and the hardware layer. The
software needs to be aware of the capabilities of the hardware (both DSP and RF
hardware) at both ends of the communications link to ensure compatibility and to
make maximum use of the hardware resources. Also, given that the software-
defined radio will operate in an existing data infrastructure, it must interface
quickly and efficiently with this infrastructure. This means that the software-
defined radio needs to control issues such as attribute naming, error
management, and addressing, regardless of the protocol used in the
infrastructure. Partitioning the radio functions into objects can help with these
issues as well as aid in portability and maintenance of the software. Example
objects might include the blocks of the model software-defined radio . Security is
an important issue to ensure that software download is legitimate. Finally, given
that higher-layer protocols such as TCP have constraints inherent to the way in
which they manage a session, the software architecture should consider latency
and timing for the whole protocol stack.

 Digital signal processing hardware architecture selection—The core digital signal

processing hardware can be implemented through microprocessors, FPGAs,

12
 and/or ASICs. Typically microprocessors offer maximum flexibility, highest power
consumption, and lowest computational rate, while ASICs provide minimal
flexibility, lowest power consumption, and highest computational rate. FPGAs, on
the other hand, lie somewhere between an ASIC and a DSP in these
characteristics. The selection of the core computing elements depends on the
algorithms and their computational and throughput requirements. In practice, a
software-defined radio will use all three core computing elements, yet the
dividing line between the implementation choices for a specific function depends
on the particular application being supported. A very good analysis is given in the
SDR software and hardware architecture.

 Radio validation—This is essential to ensure not only that the communicating

units operate correctly, but also that a glitch does not cause system-level failures.
Interference caused by a software-defined radio mobile unit to adjacent bands is
an example of how a software-defined radio could cause a system-level failure,
and this is of great concern to government regulators [13]. Given the many
variable parameters for the SDR and the desire for an open and varied source of
software modules, it is very difficult to ensure a fail-proof system. Testing and
validation steps can be taken to help minimize risk. Structuring the software to
link various modules with their limitations can help in testing compatibility of
software modules.

3.2.8 Software Download

13
 The implementation of a fully programmable air interface requires the definition of
methods for software download. Concerning the base station, software download is
normally executed when a new software version is released. Software updating in the base
station is not performed frequently. On the contrary, more critical is software download
from the mobile terminal side because this task is performed frequently due to user
mobility or user needs (e.g., the user wants to change the air interface). Also, software
download in the mobile terminal must be as fast as possible, easy to perform, and possibly
error-free. Two methods for software download are normally conceived:

 Smart card loading (e.g., SIM)

 Air interface download

3.2.9 Smart Card Loading

The user purchases a smart card from the sell point of the operator from which he
decides to take out a subscription; the software download is performed when the smart
card is inserted in the user terminal. Some problem could arise when the user needs to
roam to other operators in the same or a different country. In this case, if the other
operators use different download techniques, the user has to purchase a different smart
card from each of these operators and use the appropriate one. A possible solution to this
problem could be the installation of proper equipment in airports, railway stations, hotels,
and so on, which permit one to reprogram the smart card.

The envisaged advantages of this solution are:

 Error-free download
 Faster download than achievable with a PC
 Absence of overhead on the network

The main disadvantage is that the download procedure is not effortless for the user.

However, the success of this approach relies on two conditions:

 Development of smart cards with enough memory to store the software (technical

requirement)

 Large diffusion of sales points and equipment for software download on a territorial basis
(organizational requirement)

14
3.2.10 AIR INTERFACE DOWNLOAD
This solution has opposite characteristics from the previous one. Software download
is performed from the network on a dedicated channel. The entire download procedure is
driven by the user terminal and base station.

The main advantage of this approach is that the download does not require any
effort by the user; for example, intelligent updating could be performed automatically by
the terminal if the user is travelling through an area served by a different cellular system. In
a different situation, the user may require the installation of new features such as different
applications or enhanced video encoding schemes.

On the other hand the disadvantages of this solution are:

 Strong impact on network infrastructure due to the need for a dedicated channel
and the definition of a download procedure.
 Occurrence of errors during software download: Even if strong coding schemes
and/or repetition techniques are used on the dedicated channel, transmission errors
may occur.
 Download may be slow: Download time depends on software size and transmission
speed (i.e., channel bandwidth).
 Security and authentication of both the user terminal and the network server.
The fundamental requirement to get this solution successful is the worldwide
standardization of a bidirectional dedicated channel with bandwidth large enough to
achieve acceptable download times. Global deployment of such a
dedicated channel, its standardization and ownership, security issues, and its impact
on terminal HW and SW may add an appreciable degree of complexity to the matter.

3.3 BENEFITS OF SOFTWARE RADIO

15
 As we Software radio can bring benefits to any actor involved in the
telecommunications market: manufacturers, operators, and users. For manufacturers, there
is the possibility to concentrate R&D efforts on a reduced hardware platform set, applicable
to every cellular system and market, not only on a national or regional basis.

As a consequence, mass production would allow lowered costs. Another relevant

advantage would be the possibility to improve the software in successive steps, and the
correction of software errors and bugs discovered during operation. Operators will be able
to rapidly roll out new services tailored to the needs of each user and differentiated from
those of other operators.

With the same terminal it will be possible to provide all services even if supported by
different communication standards. In addition, there is the possibility to implement multi-
standard base stations.

The advantages for users are the possibility to roam their communications to other
cellular systems and take advantage of worldwide mobility and coverage (i.e., a service can
be provided if at least one cellular network covers the considered area). Moreover, users
can configure their terminals according to their preferences.

Also, SW radio technology increases hardware lifetime (of both the base station and
user terminal), reducing the obsolescence risk. System repro-grammability allows hardware
reuse until a new generation of hardware platforms is available. This does not mean that
the user terminal lifetime is increased indefinitely, but, as in the PC market, more powerful
PCs are necessary to run more and more powerful programs. The same phenomenon is
likely to be experienced by mobile terminals in the near future.

16
The software that defines the radio interface, together with the higher levels (level 2 and 3),
are collected in libraries. The libraries are divided into SW modules which belong to three
functional categories

3.3.1 A Signal processing modules

These software modules implement basic functions such as coding and modulation.

3.3.2 Real-time control modules

Since These modules supervise the processing flow and perform the scheduling of
the signal processing and hardware interface modules.

3.3.3 Hardware interface modules

These modules manage the data input/output flow from and toward the IF stage.

17
 CHAPTER 4

ADVANTAGES /DISADVANTAGES

4.1 Advantages of Software Radio

1. Telecommunication Market.

2. Possibility to improve the software in relatively successive steps.

3. Correction of software errors and bugs.

4. Applicable to every cellular system.

5. Easily up-gradable.

4.2 Disadvantages of Software Radio

1. Occurrence of errors during software Download.

18
 CHAPTER 5

APPLICATIONS

5.1 SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO APPLICATIONS

The earliest SDR applications and economies are inextricable. There is a need for service
providers to offer differentiated services such as voice coders customized to language
families, such as Asian languages [19]. The need for differentiated service, of course, is
driven by market economics. Similarly, as GSM fades from cutting edge to relatively easy
compare with 3G, the economics of software realizations of GSM handsets and base
stations loom large. Turletti’s paper characterizes processing requirements in terms of
industry-standard benchmarks, substantially simplifying the cost/benefit trade-offs [20].
There is a research in consideration of GSM to hybrid multicarrier base stations. Murotake
similarly looks toward reconfigurable 3G base stations. Their economics driver is the
opportunity to employ standard parallel processing computing platforms for the delivery
of such base stations, expanding the production base of the commercial products, and
potentially reducing the costs of the base stations. Cost of the entry into the base station
market would also seem to be reduced using their approach. Also, there is an
innovative approach to software radio technology using software-based CDMA as a
proximity sensor for a virtual mouse.

It suggests the pervasive nature of low-cost software-based solutions to

accomplishing tasks without wires. As mention earlier, SDR has found an application in CR.
The analysis of software radio economics is also carried out . The key findingis that it takes
about 2 years and U.S. $25 million to transition a strong single-channel digital radio
capability into a multiband multimode SDR capability with wider bandwidth with RF and
ADCs and DACs, large scale software, middleware, and pooled processing resources. One of
the commercial applications of SDR is from Alcatel-Lucent .

19
 The flexibility of their radio network solutions, as demonstrated with the
LTE software module that has been introduced for their 3G NodeBs, is part of a more
comprehensive strategy to offer a converged RAN approach. Leveraging years of Bell Labs
research in SDR and experience with software-only upgrades, Alcatel-Lucent provides
unprecedented flexibility to operators in their network evolution or renovation. Beyond the
ability to upgrade 3G base stations to support LTE, their solutions allow different
technologies to coexist in a single base station and flexible software based spectrum
refarming. Their SDR base station modules can be installed on the 500,000 Base Stations
that they have already deployed, ensuring their customers investment protection and a
smooth path to more advanced capabilities in the future

20
5.2 Conclusion

In With the emergence of new standards and protocols, wireless communication is

developing at furious pace. The software defined radio represent a major change in the
design paradigm for radios in which a large portion of the functionality is implemented
through programmable signal processing devices, giving radio the ability to change its
operating parameters to accommodate new features and capabilities. A software radio
approach reduces the content of RF and other analog components of conventional radio
and emphasizes DSP to enhance overall receiver flexibilities. The mobile wireless
communications

Infrastructure developers and service providers are now coming up with applications
of software-defined radio in their business solutions and that is a great success of the
concept of the future technology radio- the SDR.

21
 REFERENCES
[1] E. Berruto and G. Colombo, "Protocol and Architectural Issues for Software Radio," SWe
Radio Wksp., Brussels, Belgium, May 1997.

[2] E. Berruto, "Core Network Evolution, the European Coordinated Approach to Third
Generation," Sept. 9-10 1999, Beijing, China.

[3] J. Twingler, "Operators Perspectives of Evolution towards Third Generation," Euro.

Coordinated Approach to 3rd Generation, Beijing, China, Sept. 9-1 0. 1999.

[4] J. Mitola, "The Software Radio Architecture," /€E€ Commun.Mag., May 1995.

[5] J. Mitola, "Software Radio Technology Challenges and Opportunities," SW Radio Wksp.,
Brussels, Belgium,May 1997.

[6] B. Kraemer et al., "Advances in Semiconductor Technology Enabling Software Radio,"

5W Radio Wksp., Brussels. Belgium, May 1997.

[7] J. Wepman, "AID Converters and Their Applications in Radio Receivers," /E€€ Commun.
Mag., May 1995.

[8] Special Issue on Software Radio, /€E€ Pers. Commun. ,Aug. 1999.

22