Since the mid to late 1980s, software-defined radios (SDRs) have been making progress, especially in the military sector. The Department of Defense's (DoE) Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) program since the mid-90s has further propelled its development on the defense front. Concurrently, the SDR technology has been in transition from advanced military applications to satellite and cellular systems. And, with recent advances in high-speed monolithic data converters, high-performance low-cost single-chip digital signal processors (DSPs), as well as high density low-priced FPGAs, along with broadband antennas and software/algorithms, the technology is poised to soon reach mainstream consumer applications. In fact, software radio has already pervaded the cellular radio base stations and is rapidly moving toward cellular and mobile handsets. The first SDR-enabled base station was approved by the FCC last November.

Besides commercial cellular and mobile handsets, it is eyeing multimode, multiband automobile radios amongst other high-volume commercial applications. Also, with public safety/homeland security as a government priority, agencies are closely examining ways to leverage SDR capabilities to ensure intelligent and reliable communications within the defense and commercial sectors.

Speaking of commercialization, this month SDR developer TechnoConcepts demonstrated its proprietary true software radio (TSR) technology receiver to some 16 different wireless communications companies in South Korea. Consequently, a single wireless receiver was shown to communicate directly with different devices on multiple different frequency bands, using only software to receive, translate, and process the different wireless signals. While the demonstrations were based on the RF-to-digital (RF/D) converter chip based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology, efforts are under way to convert the design to CMOS and biCMOS technologies for cost sensitive high-volume commercial applications. The result of this success has prompted the company founders to provide similar demonstrations in North America and China.

Obviously, the global cellular and mobile phone market is huge with tremendous potential for growth as new standards and technologies evolve and begin to impact the performance and capabilities of the product. Hence, it is not surprising to hear that the cellular industry represents the most significant market potential for SDR technology. According to a recent report released by the SDR Forum, “Market Segmentation and Sizing,” the cellular industry is evolving into one of the largest international industries, with subscriber base and market penetration continuing to climb. The report identified several key attributes of SDR that make the technology attractive for deployment in the cellular marketplace. These include SDR's ability to:

• foster component, chips, subsystems, and intellectual property reuse;

• successfully address time-to-market pressures; and,

• lower development costs.

“We are starting to see significant and diverse SDR opportunities, requirements, and benefits emerging for the various market segments,” said Allan Margulies, chief operating officer of the SDR Forum. “This first report was designed to identify and rank the market segments that hold the most potential for SDR technology. The forum's subsequent reports will address each of these market segments in more detail.”

Segments identified in the Market Segmentation and Sizing report included cellular, public safety, WLAN/WiMAX, military, automotive/telematics, and aviation/avionics.

Other key finding of this first report include:

• Lower cost is an important consideration for all market segments, and a common platform to provide for economies of scale has been consistently identified as a key enabler.

• Software flexibility is considered an essential benefit for all markets.

• Recent advances in programmable logic are creating opportunities for SDR to extend from low throughput processing (baseband) to higher throughput processing (transceiver).

• 90 nm and below CMOS process technologies appear well positioned to support aggressive SDR capabilities, such as highly flexible mode and band selection.

The second phase of the report in this series, tentatively titled “Cellular Industry and SDR Opportunities” is expected this year.