Software Radios for Maximum Flexibility and Interoperability

The upcoming Software Radios will change the commercial as well as the military market of radio communications. Due to their programmability Software Radios offer an extreme flexibility falling into 3 main domains Multirole, Multimode and Multiband operation. Multiband just means that the radio can cover the complete spectrum from HF to SHF, Multimode requests to cope with different air interfaces and Multirole addresses the question, which applications a software radio has to serve. Essential properties of a software radio architecture, particularly supporting the use of COTS components and mitigating parts obsolescence, are the strict decoupling of application software and platform hardware forming APIs together with a consequent modularzation of the hardware. The decoupling allows hardware-independent development of the application software, whilst the hardware modularization supports a cyclic reengineering process in case components have to be replaced by new COTS parts. Savings in term of logistic and upgrades reduce the overall life-cycle costs by about 40 percent in comparison with conventional radios. In turn, these platforms are free to be scaled to manpack, airborne, naval or stationary deployment, simultaneously optimized for example in terms of power saving, size or flexibility, where the software layer guarantees interoperability among these radio families by common waveforms. An example of an existing military software radio is presented showing multiband, multimode and multirole features.