A review on various types of Software Defined Radios (SDRs) in radio communication

Software Defined Radio (SDR) promises to deliver a cost effective and flexible solution by implementing a wide variety of wireless protocols in software. The SDR became more popular in recent years because of its abilities to realize many applications without a lot of efforts in the integration of different component. This software based radio device allows engineers to add more features to the communication system and implement any number of different signal processing elements or protocols without changing the original system hardware and its architecture. It provides a customizable and portable communications platform for many applications, including the prototyping and realization of wireless protocols and their performances. It is also able to interface with a separate hardware module to communicate over a real channel. In this article we described and compared the various SDRs that currently has been using by the researchers to study the performance of wireless protocol. Among the SDRs that we focused in this article are USRP, SORA, Air blue, SODA, and WARP

Will SDN be part of 5G?

For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered settled with SDN/NFV (Software Defined Networking/Network Function Virtualization) providing the inevitable innovation enablers solving many outstanding management issues regarding 5G. However, given the monumental task of softwarization of radio access network (RAN) while 5G is just around the corner and some companies have started unveiling their 5G equipment already, the concern is very realistic that we may only see some point solutions involving SDN technology instead of a fully SDN-enabled RAN. This survey paper identifies all important obstacles in the way and looks at the state of the art of the relevant solutions. This survey is different from the previous surveys on SDN-based RAN as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul, backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment, business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general purpose processors (GPP), and additional security vulnerabilities, softwarization brings along to the RAN. We have also provided a summary of the architectural developments in SDN-based RAN landscape as not all work can be covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the state of the art of SDN-based RAN and clearly points out the gaps in the technology.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure

ESTABLISHING NEW FOUNDATIONS FOR THE USE OF REMOTELY-PILOTED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS FOR CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS

Abstract. Skyopener is a project funded by the EU through the European GNSS Agency (GSA) in the framework of the Horizon 2020 program. Skyopener's goal is contributing to the roadmap for the integration of civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) into nonsegregated airspace, by providing and testing enabling technologies, in particular with reference to European initiative U-Space, aimed at establishing regulations and infrastructure for integration of unmanned aviation into shared airspace. The main outcomes of the project include: implementing and testing a reliable and secure redundant air-ground communication link, based on satellite and 3G/4G networks; integrating the mission management system and ground station with a UTM (Unmanned aerial system Traffic Management) client, and experimenting UTM services being deployed by one of the partners; demonstrating technical and economic feasibility of long- range missions beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) by executing corridor mapping on a high-voltage powerline, and airport area surveys (e-TOD: electronic-Terrain Obstacle Database).</p

Highly-configurable FPGA-based platform for wireless network research

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-164).Over the past few years, researchers have developed many cross-layer wireless protocols to improve the performance of wireless networks. Experimental evaluations of these protocols require both high-speed simulations and real-time on-air experimentations. Unfortunately, radios implemented in pure software are usually inadequate for either because they are typically two to three orders of magnitude slower than commodity hardware. FPGA-based platforms provide much better speeds but are quite difficult to modify because of the way high-speed designs are typically implemented by trading modularity for performance. Experimenting with cross-layer protocols requires a flexible way to convey information beyond the data itself from lower to higher layers, and a way for higher layers to configure lower layers dynamically and within some latency bounds. One also needs to be able to modify a layer's processing pipeline without triggering a cascade of changes. In this thesis, we discuss an alternative approach to implement a high-performance yet configurable radio design on an FPGA platform that satisfies these requirements. We propose that all modules in the design must possess two important design properties, namely latency-insensitivity and datadriven control, which facilitate modular refinements. We have developed Airblue, an FPGA-based radio, that has all these properties and runs at speeds comparable to commodity hardware. Our baseline design is 802.11g compliant and is able to achieve reliable communication for bit rates up to 24 Mbps. We show in the thesis that we can implement SoftRate, a cross-layer rate adaptation protocol, by modifying only 5.6% of the source code (967 lines). We also show that our modular design approach allows us to abstract the details of the FPGA platform from the main design, thus making the design portable across multiple FPGA platforms. By taking advantage of this virtualization capability, we were able to turn Airblue into a high-speed hardware software co-simulator with simulation speed beyond 20 Mbps.by Man Cheuk Ng.Ph.D

Reconfigurable Antenna Systems: Platform implementation and low-power matters

Antennas are a necessary and often critical component of all wireless systems, of which they share the ever-increasing complexity and the challenges of present and emerging trends. 5G, massive low-orbit satellite architectures (e.g. OneWeb), industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), satcom on-the-move, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles, all call for highly flexible systems, and antenna reconfigurability is an enabling part of these advances. The terminal segment is particularly crucial in this sense, encompassing both very compact antennas or low-profile antennas, all with various adaptability/reconfigurability requirements. This thesis work has dealt with hardware implementation issues of Radio Frequency (RF) antenna reconfigurability, and in particular with low-power General Purpose Platforms (GPP); the work has encompassed Software Defined Radio (SDR) implementation, as well as embedded low-power platforms (in particular on STM32 Nucleo family of micro-controller). The hardware-software platform work has been complemented with design and fabrication of reconfigurable antennas in standard technology, and the resulting systems tested. The selected antenna technology was antenna array with continuously steerable beam, controlled by voltage-driven phase shifting circuits. Applications included notably Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) deployed in the Italian scientific mission in Antarctica, in a traffic-monitoring case study (EU H2020 project), and into an innovative Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) antenna concept (patent application submitted). The SDR implementation focused on a low-cost and low-power Software-defined radio open-source platform with IEEE 802.11 a/g/p wireless communication capability. In a second embodiment, the flexibility of the SDR paradigm has been traded off to avoid the power consumption associated to the relevant operating system. Application field of reconfigurable antenna is, however, not limited to a better management of the energy consumption. The analysis has also been extended to satellites positioning application. A novel beamforming method has presented demonstrating improvements in the quality of signals received from satellites. Regarding those who deal with positioning algorithms, this advancement help improving precision on the estimated position

Spectrum, Volume 9, Number 22

Highlights include: NEASC reaccredits SHU: overall response by the team was favorable, with specific references to SHU’s near extinction in 1988 due to financial difficulties to its current state of fiscal strength --The new Student-Athlete Council was formed this year --Beginning in fall \u2793 academically qualified sophomore-junior students will be recruited, trained and supervised as Classroom Learning Assistants connected with the University Learning Center as part of a university-wide effort to increase retention, improve the graduation rate of all SHU students and raise the overall academic quality of this institution --April Ertl lights up lady sluggers

Facilitating Flexible Link Layer Protocols for Future Wireless Communication Systems

This dissertation addresses the problem of designing link layer protocols which are flexible enough to accommodate the demands offuture wireless communication systems (FWCS).We show that entire link layer protocols with diverse requirements and responsibilities can be composed out of reconfigurable and reusable components.We demonstrate this by designing and implementinga novel concept termed Flexible Link Layer (FLL) architecture.Through extensive simulations and practical experiments, we evaluate a prototype of the suggested architecture in both fixed-spectrumand dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks. FWCS are expected to overcome diverse challenges including the continual growthin traffic volume and number of connected devices.Furthermore, they are envisioned to support a widerange of new application requirements and operating conditions.Technology trends, including smart homes, communicating machines, and vehicularnetworks, will not only grow on a scale that once was unimaginable, they will also become the predominant communication paradigm, eventually surpassing today's human-produced network traffic. In order for this to become reality, today's systems have to evolve in many ways.They have to exploit allocated resources in a more efficient and energy-conscious manner.In addition to that, new methods for spectrum access and resource sharingneed to be deployed.Having the diversification of applications and network conditions in mind, flexibility at all layers of a communication system is of paramount importance in order to meet the desired goals. However, traditional communication systems are often designed with specific and distinct applications in mind. Therefore, system designers can tailor communication systems according to fixedrequirements and operating conditions, often resulting in highly optimized but inflexible systems.Among the core problems of such design is the mix of data transfer and management aspects.Such a combination of concerns clearly hinders the reuse and extension of existing protocols. To overcome this problem, the key idea explored in this dissertation is a component-based design to facilitate the development of more flexible and versatile link layer protocols.Specifically, the FLL architecture, suggested in this dissertation, employs a generic, reconfigurable data transfer protocol around which one or more complementary protocols, called link layer applications, are responsible for management-related aspects of the layer. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have designed andimplemented a prototype of the FLL architecture on the basis ofa reconfigurable software defined radio (SDR) testbed.Employing the SDR prototype as well as computer simulations, thisdissertation describes various experiments used to examine a range of link layerprotocols for both fixed-spectrum and DSA networks. This dissertation firstly outlines the challenges faced by FWCSand describes DSA as a possible technology component for their construction.It then specifies the requirements for future DSA systemsthat provide the basis for our further considerations.We then review the background on link layer protocols, surveyrelated work on the construction of flexible protocol frameworks,and compare a range of actual link layer protocols and algorithms.Based on the results of this analysis, we design, implement, and evaluatethe FLL architecture and a selection of actual link layer protocols. We believe the findings of this dissertation add substantively to the existing literature on link layer protocol design and are valuable for theoreticians and experimentalists alike