Software radio-impacts and implications

Reconfigurable 'soft' terminals for personal communications were proposed at least five years ago. However, it is only in the past two years that such concepts have gained serious marketplace credibility. We postulate the implications of software radio, developing a possible evolutionary scenario. We expect software radio to impact initially at the service and applications level, as a tool to allow rapid and flexible service customisation and new degrees of operator differentiation, pre-dating UMTS. As availability of low-power, low-cost processing increases, so penetration further down the OSI protocol stack may be expected. Multiple air interfaces could eventually be accommodated by software radio using over-the-air-reconfiguration, OTAR. However other alternatives, such card-based software update, could offer more attractive solutions.