Revisamos las plataformas de radio definidos por software disponibles en el mercado y clasificarlos con respecto a su capacidad de permitir la rpida creacin de prototipos de sistemas inalmbricos de prxima generacin. En particular, Primero se discuten los retos de la investigacin impuestas por la ltima de radio definido por software de fi permitiendo tecnologas, incluyendo tanto analgicos como hardware de procesamiento digital. A continuacin se presentan las plataformas de radio definidos por software comercial del estado de LHE-arte, describir sus capacidades de software y hardware, y clasificarlos en base a su capacidad para permitir la creacin de prototipos rpidos y avanzar en la investigacin experimental en las redes inalmbricas, Por ltimo, se presentan de tres experimental escenarios de banco de pruebas (terrestre inalmbrica, areo, y submarinas) y argumentan que el desarrollo de una abstraccin diseo del sistema podra mejorar significativamente la eficiencia del proceso de implementacin de prototipos y banco de pruebas.

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SoftwareDefined Radio Platforms

George Sklivanitis, Adam Cannon, Stella N. Batalama, and Dimitris A. Pados

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We review commercially available soft-ware-defined radio platforms and classify themwith respect to their abilitth enable rapid prototyping of nextgeneration wireless systems. Inparticular, we rst discuss the research challeng-es imposed by the latest softwaredened radioenabling technologies including both analog anddigital processing hardware. Then we presentthe state-oflhe-art commercial software-definedradio platforms, describe their software andhardware capabilities, and classify them baSCdon their ability to enable rapid prototyping andadvance experimental research in wireless net-working, Finally, we present three experimentaltestbed scenarios (wireless terrestrial, aerial, andunderwater) and argue that the development ofa system design abstraction could significantlyimprove the efficiency of the prototyping andtestbed implementation process.

ENTRonucriON

Since the early 1990s. the software-definedradio (SDR) or softwareradio" architecture,conceived by the seminal work in [.1], changedthe landscape of radio engineering by leverag-ing the flexibility provided by programmablesoftwarerecongurable hardware. Defining andprogramming radio communication function-alities in software that control heterogeneoushardware platforms such as general-purpose pro-cessors (GPPs), digital signal processors (USPS),and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)was envisioned as a compelling solution for thedevelopment of exible and recongurable wire-less networks.

As of today. commercially available SDR plat-forms are capable of tuning in software criticalphysical layer communication parameters suchas carrier frequency, bandwidth, modulation, anddata rate. However, the ever growing demand forcommunication bandwidth, end~to~end reliability,and selfawareness under dynamically changingchannel conditions requires SDR systems thatexhibit self-organization and reconfigurationcapabilities across all the layers of the networkprotocol stack Arguably, such systems wouldsignificantly benefit testbed developments inemerging research areas such as cognitive radio,

multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications (i.e., systems with multiple transmit/receive antennas), full-duplex multiuser MIMO,and massive MIMO (also known large-scaleantenna systems). ,

Existing hardware technologies such asFPGAs, DSPs, and GPPs enable individually,modular digital signal processing. However,rapid simulation, a necessary feature for modernSDR systems [3], rapid prototyping, and real-time experimental testing of nextgeneration!recongurable cross-layer optimized wireless network protocols require the development of com-prehensive software environments that are ableto i) adopt a holistic hardware-software approachto wireless system design; ii) provide heteroge-neous multiprocessing hardware capabilities tomodularize algorithmic deployment and matchcomputational needs of signal processing software modules to computational capabilities ofthe available hardware platforms; iii) providemultiple layers of abstraction to tame hardwarecomplexity and allow rapid iteration betweensimulation and prototyping.

In an attempt to address latency and through-put needs in softwaredefined wireless networking, recent software developments in bothGPPcentric and FPGAvcentric SDR archi-tectures follow parallel paths with little or nocross-fertilization between the two software com-munities. Consequently, there are a plethora ofsoftware tools and pertinent libraries that aretightly integrated with specific hardware platforms, without offering consistent abstractionstoward a unified SDR system design and simula-tion philosophy. Software tools are distinguishedinto open and closed source (proprietary) programming environments, each providing dif-ferent levels of flexibility and integration withhardware. Furthermore, distributing process-ing across heterogeneous hardware platformstoward, for instance, optimizing the implemen-tation of resource-demanding cross-layer networking protocols requires developers to mastermultiple software tools. At the same time, hardware configurations vary across different SDRvendors, while software portability is not guar-anteed across different SDRs. Hence, facilitatingthe transition from concept to simulation andthen to prototype can become quite a tedious

The authors are Will] the State University of New York at Buffalo,

The authors reviewcommercially availablesoftware-defined radioplatforms and classifythem with respect totheir ability to enablerapid prototyping

of nextgenerationwireless systems. Theydiscuss research chal-lenges imposed by thelatest softwaredefinedradio enabling technol-ogies including bothanalog and digital pro-cessing hardware, andthey present the state-otthe-art commercialsoftwaredened radioplatforms,

IEEE Communications Magazine ' January 2016

0]63-68(.l4r'16/$25.ll0 2016 IEEE

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