This course is designed to give seniors and graduate students an overview of software-defined radio (SDR) systems and the technologies necessary for their successful implementation as communication systems. With the rapid emergence of new standards and protocols in wireless communication, many functions of traditional radio receivers are being implemented in software. These new radio transceivers are called software-defined radios since their implementation relies heavily on digital signal processing techniques and require fewer radio-frequency components than classic hardware-based analog radios. Consequently, by utilizing software radio algorithms, it is possible to implement radio transceivers at a very low cost and simultaneously to exploit the multiple benefits a digital system offers, such as high dynamic range, perfect coherent quadrature detection, and programmable filters.
Students will understand the classes of SDRs, historical trends, and their commercial, military, and aerospace applications. A review will be given to reinforce the student’s knowledge of telecommunication concepts and systems, waveform generation, and analog and digital modulation schemes. The student will be able to use the hardware elements of an SDR system: the front-end RF system, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The student will then couple these hardware elements with the software-defined elements of the radio system: sampling, digital filtering, signal recovery, timing recovery, equalization, and baseband processing. Employing the hardware and software of the overall system, the student will build a functioning SDR system. The student will also appreciate the current and future trends in the SDR space, including cognitive radio systems, and implemented SDRs.
The course contains significant computer and hands-on project work in order to implement working SDR systems.