Radios race to mobile phones
Driven by customer behaviour, the development of applications and services within the telecommunications field is continuously changing. While business and information services are important there is also a need to brighten the moments of boredom. By filling idle moments with a bit of fun, independent of time and place, another dimension is added to the worlds of global roaming communication. Challenged by this, a multi-national European consortium consisting of well-known industries of the telecommunications sector developed a demonstrator that implements the software programmable radio. The Software Radio Technology, or briefly SORT, project involves the application of specific critical radio receiver functionalities, such as channelisation and sample rate adaptation on reconfigurable hardware for different types of air interface (Terrestrial and Satellite UMTS) with different bandwidths (broadband/narrowband) and non-consumerable clocks, such as GSM. The prospective benefits from this project results are tremendous. The mobile phone evolves from a voice communication device to a tool that also triggers and shares fun wherever. Based on the Generic Radio Access Network (GRAN) approach the demonstrator's design allows distinguishing radio-dependent from radio-independent parts, turning the integrated radio work similarly to a normal digital radio. Hence, the user will have the opportunity to conveniently manage the call, while listening to his or her favourite station, manually switching between channels or using the automatic station search, or even having the capability of programming favourite channels. Secondary, but equally important benefits for the operators and suppliers include the perspective development of adaptive platforms in Base Stations/ Fixed Earth Stations, Satellites and Mobile Terminals. In addition, the possibility of developing new applications of the software programmable radio concept is now more real than ever. Within the telecommunications research field, the project has significantly contributed to the advancement of the signal processing architectures. The development of guidelines and key recommendations will allow the standardisation of the third generation mobile communication systems as far as radio accessibility is concerned.
