A PUSH download architecture for software defined radios

A software defined radio (SDR) is a completely configurable radio that can be programmed in software to define its functionality. An SDR handset can be modified to perform different functions at different times through software downloads. Software radios give the ability to add or remove software components or allow plug and play of software components. This allows the SDR handset to be specifically tailored to the applications expected to run on the handset resulting in great flexibility. The downloadable software components can be signal processing components, protocol components or application components. The SDR forum is evolving a download protocol in liaison with the MExE (mobile execution environment) activities of the ETSI forum. Software download overheads are an important issue in realizing viable software radios. Download requests can be initiated by the user terminal, which is termed as a PULL operation or the base station (or the download server) can initiate the download process which is termed as a PUSH operation. We assert that PUSH is an important mode of software download and explore a download architecture that involves PUSH.