DENVER, August 1, 2007Software Defined Radio (SDR) is poised to play a major role in wireless broadband access, according to a new study commissioned by the SDR Forum (www.sdrforum.org), international non-profit industry association for reconfigurable wireless technology.
Prepared by digital wireless and multimedia communications technology consultant Jim Gunn, the 52-page study, titled “Wi-Fi, WiMAX and Beyond 3G/4G” and subtitled “Broadband Wireless Access (BWA),” provides insight into market opportunities for the community of SDR and the challenges it faces.
One such opportunity, the study says, is multiradio – a hot industry trend in cellular and BWA – where multiple radio standards (or waveforms) are incorporated into a single mobile, portable or infrastructure platform. For example, GSM cellular, WiFi, and GPS waveforms can work in parallel to provide wide area, local, and local services. As a result, SDR will have to deal not only with waveform selection—its traditional focus—but also with concurrent operations.
“Sharing of platform resources will be essential,” the report said. “It’s very reasonable to envision this trend facilitating many synergistic opportunities for public safety, military, telematics and other applications.”
In addition, the study points to recent advances in semiconductor, radio frequency (RF) and data acquisition technologies that provide immediate market opportunities for SDRs to expand programmability for more transceiver algorithms and more broadly achieve long-proven software advantages:
· lower development costs;
· faster time to market;
· increased flexibility for mass customization in development, deployment and in-place products;
· better reuse of intellectual property;
· support for multi-band and multi-mode RF operations; and
· waveform, protocol and application selection and update.
The survey concludes that nearly all industry stakeholders have indicated intentions for multiradio deployments that address Wi-Fi, WiMAX and beyond 3G waves on common platforms and to use SDR-centric concepts and technologies to achieve the benefits of the SDR platform.
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