Standardization efforts for software-defined radio

Abstract

Software-defined radios (SDRs) allow the user or operator to switch between multiple waveforms without any changes to the underlying radio hardware. Minimally configurable radios that support only a few waveforms are easily managed using proprietary interfaces. However, true software radios allow thousands of different waveforms, making their configuration a nontrivial task. The level of complexity introduced by SDR has been recognized for over a decade. This paper provides an overview of different efforts to standardize the configuration and operation of SDRs. I discuss the Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) standard developed by the U.S. Army, based on the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) framework. JTRS is compared to the NASA proposal known as STRS. Both of these standards deal with higher network layers and treat the physical layer as a ‘black box.’ A new standard to describe the physical layer, SDRPHY, is discussed in detail. Finally, a few hardware-specific standardization efforts are discussed. 1 2