Software defined radio : a system engineering view of platform architecture and market diffusion

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-181).As complexity and ambiguity in products and customer needs increase, existing companies are being forced toward new organizational models. New products require integrating knowledge across technologies, architectures, and functions in new ways, building product platforms that can adapt to changes in markets and product design throughout the product development process. In particular, the wireless telecommunications industry is plagued by multiple incompatible dominant second-generation standards, with each with separate migration paths to future third generation functionality. The high initial investments in spectrum and infrastructure, and corresponding switching costs, call out for a technological solution that can both evolve with the rapid advances in technology and potentially operates seamlessly across multiple incompatible networks to unify a highly fragmented system. In a system engineering context, this thesis investigates the use of software define radio technology (SDR) as a potential replacement for hardware solutions to the multiple air interface standard problem. This thesis investigates the role of product platform architectures in product market diffusion by studying the selection of appropriate system and product architectures, product market diffusion, and the formation of a system dominant design. Using software defined radio (SDR) technology in the wireless telecommunications industry as a case study, the emergence of SDR as a potential replacement for multiple mobile phone standards is investigated. Compared with interim compatibility solutions that combine multiple air interfaces through hardware. SDRs are an emerging technology that promises to combine multiple air-interfaces into a single wireless phone platform though software configuration. Market and organizational disruptions are determined, and how platform architecture concepts can be used to mitigate these disruptions. The history of the wireless telecommunications industry is presented to highlight the determinants of product and standards success in the wireless industry. The transition between first-generation (1G) wireless, second-generation (2G) wireless, and the interim high data rate second-generation (2.5 G) system currently being rolled out is discussed. Geographical differences in standards acceptance and the role of government policies are discussed. The strong network effects in the industry are illustrated by the late success of GSM technology in the United States market. The mode of technological standard interaction or competition is determined through the use of the Lotka-Volterra model of technological interaction and lessons learned applied to third generation systems. Plans for third generation (3G) wireless are presented, and the various transition paths from 2G to 3G are discussed. The challenges of transitioning between technologies (technological discontinuities) are highlighted through a discussion of the installed base of legacy equipment. Software defined radio (SDR) technology is presented, and a platform architecture is developed in the context of 3G market penetration. The use of appropriate flexible SDR system architectures in light of rapidly changing technological and market innovations is discussed.by Moise N. Solomon.S.M

Realizing mobile multimedia systems over emerging fourth-generation wireless technologies

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-167) and index.by Pei-Jeng Kuo.M.Eng

A new vision of software defined radio: from academic experimentation to industrial explotation

The broad objective of this study is to examine the role of Software Defined Radio in an industrial field. Basically examines the changes that have to be done to achieve moving this technology in a commercial domain. It is important to predict the impacts of the introduction of Software Defined Radio in the telecommunications industry because it is a real future that is coming. The project starts with the evolution of mobile telecommunications systems through the history. Following this, Software Defined Radio is defined and its main features are commented such as its architecture. Moreover, it wants to predict the changes that the telecommunications industry will might suffer with the introduction of SDR and some future structural and organizational variations are suggested. Additionally, it is discussed the positive and negative aspects of the introduction of SDR in the commercial domain from different points of view and finally, the future SDR mobile phone is described with its possible hardware and software.Outgoin

LEVERAGING OPENAIRINTERFACE AND SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO TO ESTABLISH A LOW-COST 5G NON-STANDALONE ARCHITECTURE

Includes Supplementary MaterialCommercial cellular service providers are at the forefront of the paradigm shift from 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) to 5G New Radio (NR). The increase in throughput, provisioning of ultra-low latency, and greater reliability of 5G enable potential uses that no other wireless communication could support. The Department of Defense (DOD) is interested in 5G NR technologies, but the implementation of the architecture can be lengthy and costly. This capstone configured a 4G LTE network and a 5G non-standalone network using OpenAirInterface and software defined radios (SDRs). Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) cards were configured and introduced to user equipment and attached to the 4G LTE network. A gNodeB (gNB) was added to the 4G LTE network to establish the 5G non-standalone (NSA) network architecture (3GPP Option 3). The testbed developed in this research was able to connect the core to a commercial internet service provider and browse the internet using third-party applications. Our analysis educates future researchers on the challenges and lessons learned when implementing the OpenAirInterface 4G LTE and 5G NSA networks. This work also provides a better understanding of 4G LTE and 5G NSA OpenAirInterface software usability, flexibility, and scalability for potential use cases for the DOD.Chief Petty Officer, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Toward a broadband service delivery model over wireless technologies to resource-constrained public high schools in South Africa

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are capable of expanding access to quality education, educational resources, and also provide teachers with new skills. Nevertheless, a majority of rural public schools have limited ICTs, mainly due to geographical landscape, lack of service delivery and poverty. As a result, they currently seem not to be adequately benefiting from current advancements in ICTs. The main objective of this research study was to investigate an appropriate broadband services delivery model using wireless access technologies, such as a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and Enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) to deliver electronic-based educational information to resource-constrained public high schools. An exploratory case study approach was adopted to identify and understand the challenges faced by rural schools in the Greater Tubatse Municipality (GTM), including educational services and content considered by the schools as relevant and useful. The research results indicate that resource-constrained schools in the GTM are facing challenges of lack of access to electronic educational information and services, and as a result, teaching and learning becomes limiting and challenging. Based on the research findings, the results show that having access to learning material via electronic platforms could afford educators and learners the opportunity to interact with the outside world, improve learning and teaching and benefit the community as a whole. The broadband services delivery conceptual model (BSDCM) was proposed, developed and evaluated to address the lack of electronic educational information and services for resource-constrained public high schools. The BSDCM is composed of both technical and non-technical components that consider requirements of all role players, ICT challenges, policy makers and Information Communication Technology for Education (ICT4ED) interventions. The proposed model addressed some of the challenges regarding lack of access to educational content. However, it is recommended that the ICT4ED policies governing the use of mobile devices in the classrooms be introduced by the relevant authorities. In addition, a comparative analysis of other network technologies should be conducted to establish if the TCP/IP header compression on Point to Point Protocol (PPP) improves the performance of the network in resource-constrained environments. Furthermore, it is recommended that further research and experiments be conducted to determine if other various third party content providers could create and deploy various educational services and content for different computing platforms using the proposed BSDCM.School of ComputingM. Tech (Information Technology

Interoperability of wireless communication technologies in hybrid networks: Evaluation of end-to-end interoperability issues and quality of service requirements

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Hybrid Networks employing wireless communication technologies have nowadays brought closer the vision of communication “anywhere, any time with anyone”. Such communication technologies consist of various standards, protocols, architectures, characteristics, models, devices, modulation and coding techniques. All these different technologies naturally may share some common characteristics, but there are also many important differences. New advances in these technologies are emerging very rapidly, with the advent of new models, characteristics, protocols and architectures. This rapid evolution imposes many challenges and issues to be addressed, and of particular importance are the interoperability issues of the following wireless technologies: Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) IEEE802.11, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) IEEE 802.16, Single Channel per Carrier (SCPC), Digital Video Broadcasting of Satellite (DVB-S/DVB-S2), and Digital Video Broadcasting Return Channel through Satellite (DVB-RCS). Due to the differences amongst wireless technologies, these technologies do not generally interoperate easily with each other because of various interoperability and Quality of Service (QoS) issues. The aim of this study is to assess and investigate end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements, such as bandwidth, delays, jitter, latency, packet loss, throughput, TCP performance, UDP performance, unicast and multicast services and availability, on hybrid wireless communication networks (employing both satellite broadband and terrestrial wireless technologies). The thesis provides an introduction to wireless communication technologies followed by a review of previous research studies on Hybrid Networks (both satellite and terrestrial wireless technologies, particularly Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, and SCPC). Previous studies have discussed Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, SCPC and 3G technologies and their standards as well as their properties and characteristics, such as operating frequency, bandwidth, data rate, basic configuration, coverage, power, interference, social issues, security problems, physical and MAC layer design and development issues. Although some previous studies provide valuable contributions to this area of research, they are limited to link layer characteristics, TCP performance, delay, bandwidth, capacity, data rate, and throughput. None of the studies cover all aspects of end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements; such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, latency, packet loss, link performance, TCP and UDP performance, unicast and multicast performance, at end-to-end level, on Hybrid wireless networks. Interoperability issues are discussed in detail and a comparison of the different technologies and protocols was done using appropriate testing tools, assessing various performance measures including: bandwidth, delay, jitter, latency, packet loss, throughput and availability testing. The standards, protocol suite/ models and architectures for Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, SCPC, alongside with different platforms and applications, are discussed and compared. Using a robust approach, which includes a new testing methodology and a generic test plan, the testing was conducted using various realistic test scenarios on real networks, comprising variable numbers and types of nodes. The data, traces, packets, and files were captured from various live scenarios and sites. The test results were analysed in order to measure and compare the characteristics of wireless technologies, devices, protocols and applications. The motivation of this research is to study all the end-to-end interoperability issues and Quality of Service requirements for rapidly growing Hybrid Networks in a comprehensive and systematic way. The significance of this research is that it is based on a comprehensive and systematic investigation of issues and facts, instead of hypothetical ideas/scenarios or simulations, which informed the design of a test methodology for empirical data gathering by real network testing, suitable for the measurement of hybrid network single-link or end-to-end issues using proven test tools. This systematic investigation of the issues encompasses an extensive series of tests measuring delay, jitter, packet loss, bandwidth, throughput, availability, performance of audio and video session, multicast and unicast performance, and stress testing. This testing covers most common test scenarios in hybrid networks and gives recommendations in achieving good end-to-end interoperability and QoS in hybrid networks. Contributions of study include the identification of gaps in the research, a description of interoperability issues, a comparison of most common test tools, the development of a generic test plan, a new testing process and methodology, analysis and network design recommendations for end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements. This covers the complete cycle of this research. It is found that UDP is more suitable for hybrid wireless network as compared to TCP, particularly for the demanding applications considered, since TCP presents significant problems for multimedia and live traffic which requires strict QoS requirements on delay, jitter, packet loss and bandwidth. The main bottleneck for satellite communication is the delay of approximately 600 to 680 ms due to the long distance factor (and the finite speed of light) when communicating over geostationary satellites. The delay and packet loss can be controlled using various methods, such as traffic classification, traffic prioritization, congestion control, buffer management, using delay compensator, protocol compensator, developing automatic request technique, flow scheduling, and bandwidth allocation

Study of continuous-phase four-state modulation for cordless telecommunications. Assessment by simulation of CP-QFSK as an alternative modulation scheme for TDMA digital cordless telecommunications systems operating in indoor applications

One of the major driving elements behind the explosive boom in wireless revolution is the advances in the field of modulation which plays a fundamental role in any communication system, and especially in cellular radio systems. Hence, the elaborate choice of an efficient modulation scheme is of paramount importance in the design and employment of any communications system. Work presented in this thesis is an investigation (study) of the feasibility of whether multilevel FSK modulation scheme would provide a viable alternative modem that can be employed in TDMA cordless communications systems. In the thesis the design and performance analysis of a non-coherent multi-level modem that offers a great deal of bandwidth efficiency and hardware simplicity is studied in detail. Simulation results demonstrate that 2RC pre-modulation filter pulse shaping with a modulation index of 0.3, and pre-detection filter normalized equivalent noise bandwidth of 1.5 are optimum system parameter values. Results reported in chapter 5 signify that an adjacent channel rejection factor of around 40 dB has been achieved at channel spacing of 1.5 times the symbol rate while the DECT system standards stipulated a much lower rejection limit criterion (25-30dB), implying that CP-QFSK modulation out-performs the conventional GMSK as it causes significantly less ACI, thus it is more spectrally efficient in a multi-channel system. However, measured system performance in terms of BER indicates that this system does not coexist well with other interferers as at delay spreads between 100ns to 200ns, which are commonly encountered in such indoor environment, a severe degradation in system performance apparently caused by multi-path fading has been noticed, and there exists a noise floor of about 40 dB, i.e. high irreducible error rate of less than 5.10-3. Implementing MRC diversity combiner and BCH codec has brought in a good gain.Higher Education Ministr

Proceedings of the Fifth International Mobile Satellite Conference 1997

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial communications services. While previous International Mobile Satellite Conferences have concentrated on technical advances and the increasing worldwide commercial activities, this conference focuses on the next generation of mobile satellite services. The approximately 80 papers included here cover sessions in the following areas: networking and protocols; code division multiple access technologies; demand, economics and technology issues; current and planned systems; propagation; terminal technology; modulation and coding advances; spacecraft technology; advanced systems; and applications and experiments

Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications