Software Digital Radio

A comprehensive guide to the RTL2832U RTL-SDR software defined radio by the authors of the RTL-SDR Blog. The RTL-SDR is a super cheap software defined radio based on DVB-T TV dongles that can be found for under $20.

by Wyglinski Alexander (Author, Editor)

If you're a mobile communications engineer considering software radio solutions, this practical resource is essential reading. It covers systems design and partitioning all the way from the antenna to the management and control software. Various options for hardware are provided including a look at current and state of the art silicon technologies such as A/D & D/As, DSPs, FPGAs, RCPs, ACMs & digital frequency up/down-converters.

If you’re a mobile communications engineer considering software radio solutions, this practical resource is essential reading. It covers systems design and partitioning all the way from the antenna to the management and control software.

By the end of this decade, a 4G wireless terminal will be available that provides high quality multimedia, personalized services, and ubiquitous multi-standard broadband connectivity with a reasonable power consumption. In this context, a multi-band transceiver is needed that provides a high-level of programmability while keeping low design complexity and costs. Software Defined Radio (SDR) is the most promising technology to implement such a terminal as it enables multi-mode reception by tuning to any frequency band, by selecting any channel bandwidth, and by detecting any modulation.

Software defined radio (SDR) is an emerging form of radio architecture, which encompasses a wide range of design techniques in order to realize a truly flexible, and potentially future-proof, transceiver system. As a field, it is very broad, encompassing: systems design, RF, IF, and baseband analogue hardware design, digital hardware design, and software engineering.