The general waveform development flow of software defined radio

The waveform in software defined radio (SDR) is the important application software which fulfills the function of communication. The waveform development is one of the most important aspects in the industry of SDR. In order to improve its portability and reusability, the waveform software should be developed according to a special flow. Aiming at the general flow of SDR waveform development, we firstly analyze the basic principle which should be complied with when we develop a waveform, namely the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) Specification. Based on the SCA specification, we analyze the types of components made up of a waveform. Then we summarize the general flow for waveform development and discuss the validation of the flow in different integral development environment. The experiences show that the proposed general waveform development flow is proper and feasible and can guide new developers to quickly grasp the process of SDR waveform development.