Reconfigurable software radio systems

Abstract

Software radio has been heralded as a significant evolutionary step for wireless technology as it allows dedicated analogue radio hardware to be replaced with flexible digital signal processing. Due to current technological limitations, today's software-based radios only scratch the surface in fully exploiting the potential of this new technology. Current approaches are limited by the available hardware with software underutilised to its full capacity in most designs. The concept of reconfigurability goes a step further, placing new demands on the canonical software radio and requiring more sophisticated software designs. This thesis explores the concept of reconfigurability in the context of software radio systems and proposes that a software-oriented component-based approach to software radio design can yield highly reconfigurable radio devices.