The application of software radios to integrated satellite/terrestrial communications

This paper details some of the problems of reconfigurable and adaptable hardware, along with a critical analysis of the basic approaches to software radio design, concentrating on the receiver architecture in particular. The European Commission ACTS FIRST project, along with significant research underway at the University of Bristol, is focused on addressing these issues. Work is also underway to enable cooperation with the ACTS SINUS project, which is examining the inter-operation of satellite and terrestrial communications systems. A genuine software radio is undoubtedly the ideal solution to this problem, but it remains to be seen if it is commercially and technologically realistic.