Software
-
Defined Radio
An Activity in LIVE
-
M Laboratory
Principle Investigator
Professor William Birmingham
Chair, Computer Science Department
Grove City College
wpbirmingham@gcc.edu
724 458 3794
Overview
Software
-
defined radio (SDR) is an important technology that underlies many modern wireless communication
s
systems. For example, most
cell
-
phone handsets
and wireless routers
are based on SDR technology.
This
technology is popular among computer scientist
s
, with several interesting software projects underway, such as the
GNU radio
and Flex
R
adio’s SDR 1000
and SDR 5000
.
Essentially,
SDR replace
s
much of the electronics in a radio with software
. By substituting many hardware
components for software, SDR prov
ides
flexibility with baseband waveforms, frequencies, and features. The
software necessary to drive an SDR includes real
-
time signal processing,
a
user interface, and other processing
tasks.
Therefore, a
n SDR is a self
-
contained
,
embedded software system with real
-
time deadlines and hardware
interfaces.
Software
-
defined radios
rely on some hardware, minimally a down
-
converter and A/D for receiving and a D/A and
an
up
-
converter for transmitting. While the hardware circuitry is well
defined, it
can be challenging to
build
because
radio
operating frequencies are, naturally enough, in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. While cell phones
are typically in the GHz range, our applications are in the
0
.1
MHz
–
100 MHz range, specially, the
amateur
, public
service,
and commercial radio bands.
Areas of
Ongoing
Research
T
he SDR has become a popular research project
with the following applications.
SDR and
P
ublic
S
afety
In this project, we are
develop
ing
inexpensive
, Pocket
PC
-
based SDR systems
for public
-
safety applications
.
Creating these “portable” SDR
s
will
allow emergency personnel to
use
a variety of radio bands during disasters. In
addition, these radios will work on the amateur radio frequencies.
Because most communications systems other
than amateur radio go down during
disasters
, SDR could allow emergency personnel to gain the information they
need in a dependable fashion.
Additionally, there were significant communications mismatches between police,
firefighters and other emergency pers
onnel during Hurricane Katrina and the September 11
th
terrorist attacks. The
flexibility o
f SDR could help to rectify miscommunication
between different branches of public servants.
SDR and
“High
-
Definition” Radio
We are developing addition
al
plug
-
ins for
commercial radio broadcasts of digital AM and FM, commonly called
“high
-
definition” radio. These new waveforms are intended to give AM radio the quality of current FM stations and
to
broadcast
FM stations
at
the quality of CDs.
Based on the
SDR
library s
oftware, we
are
building
decoders for these waveforms. This is a pure software
project using the same down
-
converting hardware as the other SDR projects.
Mobile Gaming Platforms
Mobile gaming is an important emerging technology. Electronic Arts,
Microsoft, and Google, for example,
have made major commitments to mobility. We are interested in developing high
-
performance computing and
communication platforms specifically to support mobile gaming
, communication and computation
.
Course Opportunities
I
nterested students are encouraged to take Computer Science department courses in digital
-
signal
processing and in
SDR
. These courses provide the in
-
depth exposure to the mathematics, software, and system
concepts in SDR.
Research Opportunities
Interested s
tudents, from sophomore through senior years, are encouraged to participate in
these
exciting
project
s
. Please contact Professor Birmingham
.
Enter the password to open this PDF file:
File name:
-
File size:
-
Title:
-
Author:
-
Subject:
-
Keywords:
-
Creation Date:
-
Modification Date:
-
Creator:
-
PDF Producer:
-
PDF Version:
-
Page Count:
-
Preparing document for printing…
0%
Comments 0
Log in to post a comment