CORBA delays in a software-defined radio

The increasing processing power available in single-chip processors is the technical enabler for a software-defined radio. Previous efforts have defined a software radio architecture based on POSIX operating systems and CORBA. Although this approach successfully hides details of the underlying hardware from the application software, it raises questions concerning the delays introduced by CORBA and their impact on the radio's real-time operation. Measurements performed on a software radio indicate that CORBA-related delays are tolerable, even in a nonoptimized implementation.