Software Defined Radios

Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a collection of hardware and software technologies that enable reconfigurable system architectures for wireless communications. SDR provides an efficient and comparatively inexpensive solution to the problem of building multi-mode, multi-band, multi-functional communications devices that can be enhanced using software upgrades. As such, SDR can really be considered an enabling technology that is applicable across a wide range of areas within the wireless industry. SDR enabled communications devices can be dynamically programmed in software to reconfigure the characteristics of equipment. In other words, the same piece of "hardware" can be modified to perform different functions at different times.

The military, public sector, and commercial mobile device markets demand radios with greater functionality and capacity, in smaller, lower-power packages, and at lower costs for development, acquisition, operation, and technology upgrades. This is driving transition from static, single-use, hardware-based platforms to more flexible and configurable software defined radios (SDR).

To meet present and future mission requirements, the countless unique radios of the past are giving way to compatible, multi mode or software-defined digital systems that ensure easy interoperability. To keep pace, measurement solutions must be able to test these versatile radios throughout their lifecycles. From dynamic probing inside an FPGA to testing RF, IF and IQ, from design simulation to operational troubleshooting, we can help you ensure system readiness.

Our goal is to provide a single radio transceiver capable of playing the roles of cordless telephone, cell phone, wireless fax, wireless e-mail system, pager, wireless videoconferencing unit, wireless Web browser, Global Positioning System (GPS) unit, and other functions still in the realm of science fiction, operable from any location on the surface of the earth, and perhaps in space as well.