Design and evaluation of software radio prototype with over-the-air download function

Over-the-air (OTA) download technology will play an important role in realizing software radio. We have already constructed software radio prototypes based on multiprocessor architecture. This paper reports on the implementation of the OTA download function in the software radio prototypes. OTA download time and reconfiguration time were evaluated and analyzed. The results show that PHS mode software could be downloaded within two minutes while prototype reconfiguration took about ten seconds. The current version of this OTA download function suits services that do not have severe time limits, such as updating programs held in memory.