Software defined radio: Operation, challenges and possible solutions

Software Defined Radio (SDR) or Software Radio is one of the most important technologies for the modern wireless communication system. SDR is a radio which can tune to any frequency band, implement different modulation and demodulation schemes and different standards in the same device by using reconfigurable hardware and powerful software. SDR provides flexible, upgradeable, multi-standard and longer lifetime radio equipment for both the military and for civilian wireless communications infrastructure. This paper provides a detailed analysis of SDR hardware and its operation focusing on analog front end and digital front end. The paper also highlights the benefits of SDR. However, it was expected to implement SDR since the third generation of wireless communication but many practical challenges that SDR faces, causing SDR evolution slower. This paper also discusses some of the current issues impacting the SDR technology and investigates how they are being resolved.