A software defined radio structure for 2nd and 3rd generation mobile communications standards

The international standard for third generation (3G) mobile communications IMT-2000 includes five different air interfaces. It is desirable that all interfaces can operate everywhere in order to reach a global roaming. Furthermore a backward compatibility to the second generation (2G) mobile systems such as GSM, IS-136 and IS-95 is required. As IMT-2000 will be introduced in Europe in 2001/2002, a pragmatic solution for the problem of interoperability must be found. To guarantee small handsets, the possibility of updating and of seamless system handover, e.g., between UTRA and GSM, a common frontend and a parametrized structure for the base band processing are proposed. As one hand-held should be able to perform the different aforementioned air interfaces and since the baseband functions are going to be implemented on reconfigurable hardware like DSPs and FPGAs, it can be seen as a software radio or software defined radio.