Addressing next-generation wireless challenges with commercial software-defined radio platforms

We review commercially available software- defined radio platforms and classify them with respect to their ability to enable rapid prototyping of next-generation wireless systems. In particular, we first discuss the research challenges imposed by the latest software-defined radio enabling technologies including both analog and digital processing hardware. Then we present the state-of-the-art commercial software-defined radio platforms, describe their software and hardware capabilities, and classify them based on their ability to enable rapid prototyping and advance experimental research in wireless networking. Finally, we present three experimental testbed scenarios (wireless terrestrial, aerial, and underwater) and argue that the development of a system design abstraction could significantly improve the efficiency of the prototyping and testbed implementation process.