AFF3CT: A Fast Forward Error Correction Toolbox!

It is expected that multiple radio access standards and systems will coexist in the same environment beyond 3G. The superior re-configurability and re-programmability of software-defined radio (SDR) had made itself become the most promising technology to realize such a flexible radio system. Several research projects have involved in the development of SDR systems, but their efforts mainly focus on hardware design. A software framework that allows users, manufactures or operators to insert, remove, update and configure protocols, applications and hardware modules is also an essential part of a SDR system. Unfortunately, current commercial operating systems (OS) lack of fully supports of SDR features. In this paper, the impacts of SDR on the OS and the extension of the OS for a SDR system are investigated. Moreover, the design and implementation of a software framework based on a commercial on-the-shelf (COTS) OS are also presented.

Cyber is concerned with networks of systems in all their possible forms. Electronic warfare (EW) is focused on the many different uses of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). Given that many networks make use of the EMS (wireless networks), there is clearly large scope for collaboration between the cyber-warfare and EW communities. Unfortunately, such collaboration is complicated by the significant differences between these two realms. Software-defined radio (SDR) systems are based on interfaces between the EMS and computers and thus offer tremendous potential for encouraging cyber-EW collaboration. The concept of SDR is reviewed along with some hardware and software SDR systems. These are then used to propose a number of projects where SDR systems allow collaboration between the cyber and EW realms to achieve effects which neither realm could achieve alone.

The availability of commercial Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) devices brings new possibilities for implementing Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems. Such systems are of increasing interest given the pace of innovation in wireless technology, and the pressure on RF spectrum resources, leading to a growing need to access the spectrum in more dynamic and innovative ways. In this paper, we present an SDR demonstration system based on the Xilinx RFSoC platform, which leverages the Python-based ‘PYNQ’ (Python Productivity for Zynq) software framework. In doing so, we highlight features that can be extremely useful for prototyping radio system design. Notably, our developed system features Python-based control of hardware processing blocks and Radio Frequency (RF) data converters, as well as direct visualisation of communications signals captured within the chip. The system architecture is reviewed, hardware and software components are discussed, functionality is demonstrated, and aspects of the system’s performance are evaluated. Finally, it is noted that this combined RFSoC + PYNQ approach is readily extensible for other SDR systems; we highlight our online shared resources, and invite other engineers to investigate and build upon our work.

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is computationally an efficient algorithm that transforms a function in time domain to function in frequency domain. All 3G and 4G wireless technologies use OFDM and FFT is an integral block of transceiver loop. In this paper three FFT architectures are designed that fall within the Cooley-Tukey class of algorithms. These FFT designs are targeted for OFDM applications especially in future generations of Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems. The FFT is performed on 64-point complex valued input samples with 16-bit precision. Each core is optimized for a combination of area, power, and speed. The design is targeted for a partially reconfigurable FPGA platform such as Xilinx Virtex-4 or above. The FFT cores have been simulated in Model Sim and synthesized using Xilinx ISE software. The cores can be readily downloaded on to target FPGA board to check for run time configurability. The performance evaluation of these cores show that they run at clock frequency of about 80MHz.

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are widely used in many radio systems due to its superior performance and Software Defined Radio (SDR) is an emerging paradigm of the wireless communication system design due to its good flexibility and adaptability. However, LDPC decoding is computationally intensive and the implementation of it on software in a parallel way is quite challenging due to the characteristics of LDPC decoding and structures of software. In this paper, we presented an efficient software implementation of the LDPC decoder using the Parallel Code Block Decoding mode for the WiMAX SDR base band system on IBM CELL Broadband Engine (BE). With a single Synergistic Processor Element (SPE) running at 3.2GHz, the implemented LDPC decoder can achieve a throughput up to 1.71 Mbps. With eight SPEs working in parallel, the decoder can obtain the throughput more than 13Mbps, which can meet the WiMAX system requirement at 5MHz bandwidth mode.

The ultimate objective of Software Defined Radio (SDR) is to replace the entire analog signal processing in the wireless transceivers with digital signal processing. This will provide the flexibility, through reconfiguration or reprogramming, to enable the transceivers to work with different air-interfaces standards using a single generic hardware platform. Most of the research in SDR to date has been focused on base stations, which do not have as tight constraints in size and power consumption as handsets. However, in order to realize the promise of integrated services and global roaming capabilities, the design and development of a multi-standard SDR handset with dynamic reconfigurability is crucial. The size and power constraints imposed by handsets with limited resources pose a major design challenge. This special issue brings together 11 papers that address various aspects of this challenge from the perspectives of wireless systems, computing architectures, embedded systems and signal processing. The most important part of an SDR transceiver is the wideband analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that converts the radio frequency signal received by the antenna into digital form for further processing. The first paper, “A multi-mode sigma-delta ADC for GSM/WCDMA/WLAN applications” by Jose et. al. proposed a cascaded reconfigurable sigma-delta modulator that is able to work with three different communication standards. This design, implemented in 0.18 μm CMOS technology, exhibits excellent signal-to-noise plus distortion ratios and has reduced power consumption compared to conventional designs. After ADC, the digitized received signal will need to be separated into signals within the various bands specified by the communication standard. This is performed by the channelizer which has the highest computational requirements of the whole SDR system. The second paper, by Panicker et al., reviews the state-of-the-art filter bank channelizer techniques with low power and dynamic reconfigurability properties. The design of reconfigurable devices can be optimized using the methodology of parametrization which bring together the common aspects of a myriad number of wireless standards into a single processing procedure. In this way, the implementation of the multi-standard SDR will be greatly simplified. “Promising technique of parametrisation for reconfigurable radio, the Common Operators Technique: fundamentals and examples” by Alaus et al. presents the common operator technique for parametrization which is less standards dependent than the more conventional Common Function technique. The direct digitization of the radio frequency (RF) signal requires very high speed ADCs which is not readily available using current technology. Therefore, current SDR implementations typically down-converts the RF A. P. Vinod (*) School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang, Singapore e-mail: asvinod@ntu.edu.sg

We present a reconfigurable GPU-based uplink detector for massive MIMO software-defined radio (SDR) systems. To enable high throughput, we implement a configurable linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) soft-output detector and reduce the complexity without sacrificing its error-rate performance. To take full advantage of the GPU computing resources, we exploit the algorithm's inherent parallelism and make use of efficient CUDA libraries and the GPU's hierarchical memory resources. We furthermore use multi-stream scheduling and multi-GPU workload deployment strategies to pipeline streaming-detection tasks with little host-device memory copy overhead. Our flexible design is able to switch between a high accuracy Cholesky-based detection mode and a high throughput conjugate gradient (CG)-based detection mode, and supports various antenna configurations. Our GPU implementation exceeds 250 Mb/s detection throughput for a 128×16 antenna system.

ASoftware Defined Radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system, which uses software for modulation and demodulation of radio signals.In software defined radio (SDR) receivers, high-precision clock with very low jitter is required.It is intuitive to use only one fixed master clock.However, different wireless standards use different master clock rates.Under such circumstances, digital sample rate conversion (SRC) can be used as an important solution to provide different clock rates.The basic methods used in the SRC technology are decimation with down-sampling and interpolation with up-sampling, Down-sampling has to be preceded by filtering in order to avoid aliasing, while up-sampling must be followed by filtering to reject spectral images.In this paper, the design was implemented in FPGA using Verilog.The sampling rate conversion is performed by sampling the incoming signal and interpolating/decimating the signal to the desired value and then applying the low pass filter to eliminate aliasing.The sampling is done by digital mixer (Numerical controlled oscillator).The Interpolation/Decimation is performed by the CIC filter.FIR filter performs the low-pass filtering.The sampling rate converted value is given to the DSP processor for further processing.The projected application of the CSR_SDR are in GSM handset, CDMA handset and all the wireless applications.In this paper the functionality has been implemented, verified and checked using Verilog.

This paper presents a low-cost Software-Defined Radio (SDR) Transceiver module simulated in LabVIEW, which supports the data transfer scheme using the ZigBee protocol. The proposed SDR transceiver has been entirely defined in software and provides a Graphical user interface environment built-in LabVIEW. The proposed system provides the flexibility o the users, where they can reconfigure any parameter according to the changing requirements. The modulated data can be sent in a secure way with the use of two Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes like the Convolution and Turbo Coding. The SDR module provides the capability to navigate over a wide frequency range providing programmable channel bandwidth and multi-modulation characteristics. Generic platform design for the SDR transceiver is proposed in this paper, where the users can analyze the transmitted data in real time for the ZigBee protocol. The proposed system provides rapid prototyping of the SDR system, especially for home-based applications. The developed SDR system is further put to test for flexibility by altering the different protocols and physical layer applications in real time. XBee-PRO test jig supporting ZigBee module has been used for testing the SDR system for real-time transmission and reception of binary data, text, and image.

We summarize the security necessary for software defined radio (SDR) systems, and propose a flexible structure for security systems on SDR. We introduce a new electronic commerce scheme for SDR that utilizes the ability of SDR to switch between different security algorithms for electronic commerce. We evaluate the performance of the cryptographic algorithms used in electronic commerce on various platforms including SDR systems, as basic research toward the implementation of SDR.

In the past, radio systems were designed to communicate using one or two wave forms. As a result, two groups of people with different types of traditional radio were not able to communicate due to incompatibility. The need to communicate with people using different types of equipment can only be solved by using software defined radio (SDR). SDR is a wireless device that works with any communication system, be it a cellular phone, a pager, a WI-FI transceiver an AM or FM radio, a satellite communications etc. In both hardware and software Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques are used to design a real time system. For SDR applications involving high complexity, it becomes impossible to stay with single sampling rate and so altering the sampling rate at different stages is required for low cost DSP hardware. Thus variable sampling rates i.e. Multirate Digital Signal Processing is required.

The growth of 5G applications makes it difficult to meet diverse performance requirements while using network resources efficiently. Fixed network slicing methods cannot adapt to changing traffic, leading to higher latency, lower throughput, and increased packet loss. This paper presents an experimental validation of adaptive slicing on a 3GPP Release 16-compliant 5G Standalone testbed combining Open5GS, srsRAN, software-defined radios, and commercial devices. The framework classifies traffic demand into low, medium, or high levels and adjusts slice resources in real time. Measurements show approximately 15% lower latency, higher throughput, and significantly reduced packet loss compared with static slicing. Unlike simulation-based studies or deep learning approaches requiring specialized hardware, the proposed setup achieves real-time adaptation on only CPU resources, demonstrating that practical adaptive slicing can be realized with open-source platforms and standard 5G equipment.

The 5G, the fifth generation of wireless cellular network technology, promises faster speeds, higher data transfer, and lower latency. It is being deployed globally, making it crucial to understand how exposure to 5G networks affects human tissues. In Europe, the 26 GHz frequency band has been approved for 5G telecommunications. While radiofrequency used in 4G networks has been extensively studied, millimeter-wavelength microwaves like those in the 26 GHz range remain less researched. As frequency increases, penetration into human tissue decreases, therefore 26 GHz microwaves mainly absorbed by the skin. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, includes UVA (315–400 nm), UVB (280–315 nm), and UVC (100–280 nm) ranges. While UVA and part of the UVB range reach the Earth's surface, UVC and 95% of UVB are absorbed by the ozone layer. Humans are also exposed to artificial UVC radiation from sterilizing lamps. The genetic material suffers significant damage during the absorption of UV radiation, especially in the UVC and UVB ranges, causing cross-links between constituent nucleic acids. The absorption of UV can result in the formation of intrastrand cyclobutane-pyrimidine dimers in DNA, which can lead to mutations or cell death. Therefore, solar UV radiation has high carcinogenic activity and gives rise to a long-term risk of skin cancer. As a result, solar UV radiation is carcinogenic, classified by the World Health Organization’s IARC as a Group 1 carcinogen to humans. Both 26 GHz microwaves and solar UV radiation are absorbed in the upper layers of the skin, making it essential to study their combined effects. HaCaT cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) with fetal bovine serum (FBS) and antibiotics, maintained at 37°C with 5% CO2. Cells were seeded into 96- well plates or 35 mm Petri dishes before exposure to UV and microwave radiation. UV exposure was conducted using a SOL-500 solar simulator equipped with a filter to transmit UVB and UVA wavelengths. The UV dose delivered was controlled by adjusting exposure time and lamp distance, with an effective dose of 40 J/m². For 26 GHz microwave exposure, the cells were irradiated using a horn antenna, with an average power density of 5–10 W/m². A software-defined radio (SDR) system generated a 5G signal, up-converted to the 26 GHz band, amplified, and transmitted to the cells. The exposure system was placed in a CO2 incubator, and the temperature was carefully monitored to stay below 37°C. DNA damage was assessed using the T4 enzyme-modified single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay, which detects DNA strand breaks and UV-induced pyrimidine dimers. After irradiation, cells were harvested, mixed with 1% low-melting point agarose, dropped onto agarose pre-coated slides and covered with coverslips. Cells were lysed in lysis solution overnight at 4°C, then treated with a 1:1000 dilution of FPG enzyme (New England Biolabs, USA) and incubated at 37°C for 30 minutes. After alkaline treatment (pH>13) and electrophoresis, the slides were stained and analyzed using Comet Assay IV software (Instem, UK). The aim of this study was to assess the combined effects of 26 GHz microwave and UV radiation exposure on CPD formation in keratinocytes. The findings will provide insight into the potential risks of combined exposure to these non-ionizing radiations, which could have significant implications for human health as 5G technology becomes more widespread.

Software Defined Radio (SDR) or Software Radio is one of the most important technologies for the modern wireless communication system. SDR is a radio which can tune to any frequency band, implement different modulation and demodulation schemes and different standards in the same device by using reconfigurable hardware and powerful software. SDR provides flexible, upgradeable, multi-standard and longer lifetime radio equipment for both the military and for civilian wireless communications infrastructure. This paper provides a detailed analysis of SDR hardware and its operation focusing on analog front end and digital front end. The paper also highlights the benefits of SDR. However, it was expected to implement SDR since the third generation of wireless communication but many practical challenges that SDR faces, causing SDR evolution slower. This paper also discusses some of the current issues impacting the SDR technology and investigates how they are being resolved.

A software-defined Radio (SDR) is a wireless communication system whose main radio functionalities are implemented in software on an embedded system instead of hardware. The advantages of SDR include its wide range of frequency channels that have configurable bandwidths in addition to its support of multiple configurations and modulations. In this paper, an SDR bridge implemented within a wireless sensor network (WSN) is developed. The SDR bridge is inserted as a gateway between sensor nodes and the end-user receiver to add security to the overall network. For this study, LoRa link is chosen to ensure communication between the network components because of its low power consumption and its long range. Typically, the sensor nodes will send their data to the SDR bridge using LoRa modulation. The bridge will add a layer of security to the overall system by encrypting the signals sent within the bridge. Experimental results found during this study showed that the SDR Bridge allows successful interconnection of the sensor nodes and the end-user receiver. Also, the SDR Bridge prevented reception of the data by the user when data was encrypted unless the proper key was used. Encryption of the signal did not have a significant effect on the QoS since the Packet Loss Ratio (PLR) of the link was around 1.6%. When the bridge is used, the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) was also within the typical values for the LoRa receiver.