[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       gnuradio-discuss
Subject:    [Discuss-gnuradio] SDR unleashed
From:       Steve Schear <schear () cryptorights ! org>
Date:       2001-09-24 19:26:57
Message-ID: 5.1.0.14.0.20010924122623.0336a008 () apop ! cryptorights ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

>Software-defined radio technology gets go-ahead
>
>Janos Gereben - www.the451.com
>
>[Startups and major telecom companies are now free to produce
>equipment that is reprogrammable for use on multiple frequencies.]
>
>After an industry and regulatory-agency debate going on for years, the
>Federal Communications Commission has now adopted rule changes to
>allow deployment of a new generation of radio equipment known as
>software-defined radios (SDRs). This equipment, long developed and
>refined but not authorized until now for commercial use in the US, can
>be quickly reprogrammed to transmit and receive on multiple
>frequencies in different transmission formats.
>
>Besides its other features and advantages, SDRs reprogramming
>capability alone could change the way users communicate across
>wireless services and promote more efficient use of radio spectrum,
>advocates say. In a software-defined radio, functions that were
>formerly carried out solely in hardware - such as the generation of
>the transmitted radio signal and the tuning of the received radio
>signal - are performed by software. Thus the radio is programmable,
>able to transmit and receive over a wide range of frequencies, while
>emulating virtually any desired transmission format.
>
>Prominent former FCC officials and associated scientists - including
>chairman William Kennard, Dale Hatfield, David Farber, and Dewayne
>Hendricks - have all supported action enabling SDR development in
>order to find more economic and intelligent use of available spectrum.
>On the other side were aviation and telco-run telecommunication
>interests, resisting the move towards SDR licensing.
>
>Moving with unusual speed in recent months, the FCC bridged the gap
>from last December's Notice of Proposed Rule Making on SDRs to today's
>authorization for the technology by altering Part 2 of the FCC Rules.
>Awaiting the decision were scores of SDR Forum member companies,
>including Aeronix, Agilent, Altera, Boeing, Cingular and other
>wireless providers, Conexant, companies associated with the US
>Department of Defense, France Telecom, Fujitsu, General Dynamics,
>Hitachi, Intel, Kyocera, many others.
>
>Under the FCC rules adopted last Friday, software modifications in an
>SDR can be made through a "permissive change," which has a streamlined
>filing process. The FCC identification number will not have to be
>changed, so equipment in the field will not have to be re-labeled -
>although changes can be obtained only by the original grantee of the
>equipment authorization. To allow for changes to equipment by other
>parties such as software developers, the Commission will permit an
>optional "electronic label" for software-defined radios, in which the
>FCC identification number could be displayed on an LCD or similar
>screen.
>
>The regulatory holdup in the US has handicapped developers in this
>country while SDR research and development went on vigorously in
>Europe, Asia and Australia. The Swedish-English-Israeli company
>Digital Mobility, for example, developed a powerful WAP browser
>through an SDR tool, which automatically detects WAP, Java or i-mode,
>to configure the browser accordingly. Sony's Computer Science
>Laboratories produced a working SDR prototype back in April, using its
>Software Programmable and Hardware Reconfigurable Architecture for
>Network. SOPRANO 1.0 implements modulation, demodulation and other
>basic radio functions in software, allowing single units to support
>multiple radio protocols.




[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]