5G is an emerging communications technology that will enhance data-transfer rates and their versatility on mobile networks. Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology will play a significant role in modern wireless technology. It is beneficial to the civilians and military for wireless communications.
SDR is a crucial technology for the new wireless communication system. It brings flexibility in communications that are upgradeable. It also contributes to the longer lifetime of radio equipment.
Thus, the term Software Radio commonly refers to a radio that derives its flexibility through the software while using a static hardware platform. The SDR platform supports multiple signals of various frequencies. Thus the number of platforms required for transmission is drastically reduced.
SDR Promises Better Interoperability
The most significant opportunity offered by the 5G solution is interoperability- exchanging and utilizing information between devices. A robust 5G infrastructure can connect any group of devices together, not just mobile phones. The underlying physical network consists of base stations, central operators, and user devices. Communication protocols, such as 5G, provide an optimized protocol to communicate between different nodes.
An essential consideration in creating such systems that support interoperability is possible due to the advancement of communications technology. Like its predecessors, 5G will one day become old-fashioned, so the network infrastructure should have the potential to adapt to the market and support new devices that will join its network.
The flexibility of SDR makes it ideal for such an application because it can be executed in any system and supports many protocols simultaneously. Base stations can implement SDR. It requires a relatively simple update to upgrade the communication protocol. This flexibility also allows the integrated network that does not depend on any single technology and remains operational far longer than the lifespan of the 5G protocol.
Operation of SDR
In SDR, channel selection, signal processing, modulation, and demodulation are performed through software in the digital domain. Thus, SDR’s ultimate goal is to move the Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) / Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), enabling it as close as possible right to the antenna so that all signal processing can be done digitally via software.
The main benefit of software radio includes increased flexibility, customization, adaptability and upgradeability. The factors impacting the wide recognition of software radios in the commercial market are discussed below.
- Ease of Manufacturing
The time to market a business product is a crucial factor in modern engineering design. Upgradation of devices is executed via software. It reduces the design complexity by relieving the designers from the tiresome job related to analog hardware design and their implementation.
- Interoperability
As discussed earlier, an SDR can seamlessly communicate with various radios that support several wireless standards. Using a single multi-channel, it can bridge between radios, and all multi-standard SDR can serve as a translator for all the radios assigned to a specific frequency. Core network emulators can check the performance of such frequency using various network emulation tools.
- Multi-functionality
The flexible design would allow the SDR to support many wireless standards. With the rapid growth of different wireless standards like IEEE 802.11 (WLAN), Bluetooth, etc., it is now possible to enhance radio services. Due to SDR’s multi-functionality property, different wireless standards continue to evolve.
- Optimal use of Spectrum
With the help of cognitive radio, an SDR can take advantage of the underutilized spectrum. The cognitive radio continuously senses such a spare spectrum in the surrounding environment. If the primary user or the spectrum owner is not using it, an SDR can borrow the spectrum and assign and distribute it to other users until the owner needs it again. This technique can dramatically increase the optimal use of the available spectrum.
- Power Efficiency
The software radio approach delivers a power-efficient design. As the number of functionality increases, SDR uses the same hardware to implement multiple interfaces. Thus, fewer hardware components are required, resulting in lowered power consumption.
- Ease of Upgrades
The flexible architecture of SDR allows improvements in the existing infrastructure. Adding new functionality is not a complex process. And the updates are executed through software only instead of replacing the hardware or user terminals.
Challenges in SDR
- Security Issues
Wireless communication is prone to tampering and security threats. Signal parameters like frequency, power, and modulation types are reconfigured through installing or downloading new software without replacing or removing hardware components.
The success of SDR deployment will depend on the design and execution of crucial security protocols. It will ensure robust networks and terminals against security perils.
- Increased Complexity and Development Costs
In SDR, a single platform runs multiple signals. According to users’ needs, the SDR platform reconfigures various signals, resulting in complexity in the development process. Open source USRP and GNU Radio Companion (GRC) are used to do SDR experiments. Since the cost of USRP is relatively high, a low price setup is necessary, which can be easily affordable.
Realtek Software Defined Radio (RTL-SDR) and an RF mixer may be a low-cost alternative available in the market.
Key Takeaways
SDR’s vision is implementing a single radio device containing software-controlled digital hardware. SDR can emulate any radio signal by simply updating software without disturbing the underlying hardware platform. The growth of SDR technology depends on developing its participating components such as ADCs/DACs, filters, amplifiers, and processors in terms of their functionality, speed, performance, power consumption, etc.
SDR technology may face many complications, but many positive approaches are introduced to defeat them. These make it suitable to contribute to the development of 5G technology by resolving traditional hardware structure limitations.
