Since mobile telecommunication systems were rst introduced in the early 1980s
they have become a pervasive part of modern life, with an estimated 85% of the
global population believed to be in possession of a mobile communications device.
To address the ever-increasing demand for fast ubiquitous provision of multimedia
and data services, new Radio Access Technologies (RATs) capable of meeting those
demands are constantly being developed and standardised. Currently the fourth
generation of RATs is being deployed by network operators around the world, with
standards bodies already working to develop and standardise even more advanced
RATs.
The introduction of any new, and often upgraded, RATs almost always requires
network operators to purchase new hardware systems capable of supporting the new
RATs, which must then be integrated with the plethora of RATs already present in
the network operator's heterogeneous Radio Access Network (RAN). This process
is costly and poses risks for network operators, as they must rst invest signi cant
amounts of capital on new network hardware and then they have to convince their
subscribers to purchase new mobile devices which are capable of supporting the
new RAT. Recon gurable Radio Systems (RRSs) are a relatively new approach to
developing, implementing and managing RATs within a RAN. A RRS di ers from
a traditional radio system, in that each RAT is de ned in software which can be
reused across multiple generic hardware platforms. Many RRSs also provide the
functionality to manage and control the dynamic implementation of di erent RATs
in network elements throughout a RAN.
Although RRSs are the subject of numerous research e orts, there is currently no
unifying approach or set of requirements for an RRS architecture or framework. In-
stead various researchers focus their e orts on speci c topics relating to RRS, such as
the recon gurable management system, or how RATs are modelled and implemented
in software. This lack of formal standardisation or approach to developing RRSs
represents a hindrance to the widespread adoption of RRSs
