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25 Jun 2010 - SDR conference concludes

Thoughts from the Wireless Innovation Forum SDR conference in Mainz, Germany, during 23-25 Jun 2010

The SDR Forum rebranded itself as the Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnF), or SDR Forum Version 2.0, in 2009, reflecting the widening membership base and technology focusses from the earlier emphasis on SCA. In the process, SCA work has moved into the “Co-ordinating Committee on International SCA Standards”, sitting alongside three other committees on Next Generation Radio Technologies (covering both the terminal and network), Advanced Wireless Networking and Infrastructure, and User Requirements. With a new set of wider, international aims, early 2010 saw WInnF exchanging letters of intent to collaborate with the ETSI TC RRS group, and today the forum shares common interests in reconfigurable radio systems and cognitive radio.

This conference was the 2nd Annual European Reconfigurable Radio Technologies Workshop, and involved an intriguing mix of presentations and exhibitors from the open source (GNU Radio) community, academia with papers on subjects such as cognitive radio, and of course SCA. In making sense of all this, it is worth pointing out that reconfigurability was the main emphasis when using the term “SDR”, driven by the need to support the proliferation of air interface standards now and in the future. Using this definition has interesting implications, such as the characterisation of terminals and handsets as being in the “early adopter” / “early majority” phase for SDR. It may seem odd to exclude from the SDR classification terminal developers who are writing modems and stacks in VHDL and C/C++ on DSP and GPP cores, simply due to their predominant use of optimised but non-reconfigurable ASICs, but it highlights the fact that the definition of SDR will continue to evolve with the times. As another example, the latest definition recently coordinated between the IEEE and the SDR Forum is that “an SDR is a radio in which some or all of the physical layer functions are software-defined”.

Definitions aside though, several aspects were obvious when reflecting on the conference. Although staff now at e2E have been implementing SDR in mobile satellite communications terminals and test equipment for over two decades, it is clear that the field is still far from maturity, reflecting the state of the software industry as a whole. The conference showed how active R&D still is in the field, and concepts, technologies and platforms will continue to evolve for decades to come. What is also striking is that despite the much greater levels of integration and speeds available in hardware today, the ubiquity of the PC as the host development environment and the move to 3GL+ languages, the basic software toolset capabilities and methodologies in use in the real-time embedded developments have not changed much at all. Consequently everyone still suffers the same set of problems in delivering development projects, and in exploiting the software legacies when they’re done. A wider perspective says there is still definitely room for improvement!

Please contact us if you would like to know more about our thoughts on the technologies covered above, or what we are working on in order to address the issues highlighted.  

Notes to editors

e2E Satcom is dedicated to bringing smart solutions to the mobile satellite communications marketplace. Encompassing the skills and experience necessary to plan, design, develop, inter-work and type approve User Terminals (UTs) for the latest mobile satellite systems, e2E Satcom serves as a dynamic partner for leading manufacturers and operators around the world.

e2E Satcom is today developing the smart solution for delivering the promises of Software Defined Radio (SDR) for next-generation UTs. With a new class of development tools and software IPR at your disposal, it will never have been easier to deliver world-beating products to market. e2E Satcom is proud to deliver on its name, with truly end-to-end solutions and services for terminal manufacturers.

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