Software Defined Radio: The Transition from Defense to

Mobile:

Commercial Software Defined Radio - The Emergence of Multiprotocol Multiband Support in Base

Pioneer Consulting
Market Study November 2007

Table of Contents

Software Defined Radio (SDR) has been largely confined to defense markets until now and its adoption in the commercial market has been hindered by factors such as the lack of business case, the exorbitant costs of commercially developing the technology and the lack of a commercially viable development architecture to build upon. There have also been technical challenges, such as the inability of the RF/Analog ends to handle a wide spectrum of frequencies and power consumption in handsets.

However, Pioneer sees SDR being increasingly used as a marketing tool by many commercial wireless equipment vendors, with most vendors confining the meaning of SDR to 'software reconfigurability' or the ability to provide 'software based upgrades'. On the other hand, Pioneer believes that SDR is a technology that has a wider appeal to the commercial wireless market. Going forward, SDR's role will become clearer and much more prominent as multiple air interface standards compete for the highly sought after emerging broadband wireless technologies marketplace, with no clear winner as yet in sight.

SDR is an enabler for 'multiprotocol multifrequency' features in commercial base stations and is being introduced by traditional SDR vendors as well as by 'top tier' base station OEMs. In the past few years SDR has found increasing usage in WiMAX base stations, something that has helped to widen its reach in the commercial wireless marketplace.

Pioneer views the advanced 3GPP standard LTE as a perfect insertion point for SDR because the timeline for LTE fits well with the technology advances that are occurring within SDR, especially on the RF/Analog front end. This will allow SDR base stations to support a wide range of protocols and frequencies on a common platform.

Many of the wireless equipment vendors have started to view SDR as an efficient and cost effective manufacturing tool, allowing for common platform development lowering time to market and production costs.

Thus, SDR is gradually making inroads into the commercial wireless market. 2007-12 is going to be a crucial period for SDR to be tested and adopted in the commercial market.

This brand new report from Pioneer Consulting entitled, 'Software Defined Radio: The Transition from Defense to Commercial Markets' addresses the key issues:

Who in the commercial wireless industry can gain from SDR?

Is there a commercial business case for SDR yet?

Is there consensus within the industry for a commercial SDR architecture?

Which commercial wireless geographic markets are attractive from an SDR perspective?

Which commercial wireless vendors are aggressively pursuing SDR and what is their individual level of adoption?

When can we expect to see 'true SDR' handsets?

For full details, please email keithw@cmsinfo.com

Order Form

CMS, P&A House, Alma Road, Chesham, Bucks. HP5 3HB, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1494 771734
Fax: +44 (0)1494 778994
e-mail: keithw@cmsinfo.com
Please note: calls to and from CMS may be recorded for quality control and training purposes.

For more information about us, visit CMSinfo.