Tactical software radio concept

The software radio concept merges radio technology with personal computer (PC) technology to provide a flexible communication asset that is field reprogrammable by software. This concept is realizable today because the distinction between radios and computers has blurred as radio technology has become increasingly digitized and computers have moved to the wireless world. Merging radio and PC technology to design a tactical software radio offers benefits of lower costs and decreased development time, but also presents many new challenges as the radio becomes more like a computer. As more processing power is designed into these software radios, the "radio" will be determined not by the hardware, but by the software that runs on it. Careful consideration must be given to the software architecture because it may live on through generations of hardware changes. This paper presents a software perspective and software design issues associated with building a tactical software radio.