Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Software-defined radios near stride

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 05:23:54 -0500

Software-defined radios near stride

BY ALLAN MARGULIES

Mobile Radio Technology, Jan 1, 2004

Software-defined radio is one of the key tools that will deliver more
efficient use of spectrum, and the time has come to put that tool to
use.
So said Jorge Pereira, scientific officer for the European Commission,
at
the opening of his keynote address during SDR ‘03 — the Software
Defined Radio Forum's annual technical conference and product
exposition.

“We need to continue to make use of the concepts of software-defined
radio toward actual deployments,” Pereira told an audience of more than
300, who traveled to Orlando, Fla., in November to take part in the
conference.

That theme was echoed in the public-safety panel session moderated by
Harlin McEwen, honorary co-chair for SDR ‘03, former member of the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) executive
committee,
and current chairman of the IACP's communications and technology
committee. Panelists included:

John Powell, of the National Public Safety Telecommunications
Council;

Christian Serra of Thales, France, and SDR Forum vice chair;

Fred Frantz of L-3 Communications, who represented the
National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology
Center-NorthEast, and;

Richard E. Shrum, president and CEO of The SP&T Group, and
past chair of the SDR Forum's regulatory committee.

The speakers focused on public-safety applications requirements
concerning reconfigurable radio technology. During the discussion,
Powell defined interoperability as “having the ability to talk to who
you
need to talk to when you need to talk to them (both data and voice) in
real
time.” However, he also emphasized the “McEwen corollary,” which
states that the requirement does not imply the ability to talk with
everyone
all of the time.

Powell also offered an update on Project MESA (mobility for emergency
and safety applications), a joint North America-Europe initiative
created by
the standards organizations ETSI and TIA that now has participants from
23 countries worldwide.

Serra continued the international theme by describing WIDENS (wireless
deployable network system), a European-funded cooperative
research-and-development project that addresses future wireless
communications requirements for public safety, emergency and disaster
scenarios. WIDENS is expected to develop a prototype wireless ad-hoc
communication system that features high data rates and is rapidly
deployable and scalable.

Frantz underscored the interoperability issue by noting that state and
local public-safety agencies represent a fragmented market, with more
than 18,000 police departments and no single authority in charge of
equipment specifications and acquisition. Moreover, the allocation of
spectrum for radio operation results in fragmented bands of operation,
Frantz said.

The resulting insufficient standardization prevents first responders
from
communicating at an officer-to-officer level. Frantz proposed a
software-defined radio implementation that would enable public-safety
radios to dynamically reconfigure and to transmit and receive on various

frequency bands.

Shrum, a consultant to public-safety and telecom organizations,
highlighted the regulation, allocation, and service rules that govern
the
use of radios, and he reviewed the findings of the FCC's spectrum policy

task force.

Though there is much still to be done before software-defined radio
deployments are widespread, a great deal of progress has been made in
a relatively short time span, said SDR Forum Chair Stephen Blust of
Cingular Wireless.

“Five years ago, we were talking about the potential benefits of SDR.
Today, we're talking about products that are being demonstrated and
delivered,” Blust said. “The challenge for the future will be to solve
system and network issues related to SDR.”

Editor's Note: Allan Margulies is the chief operating officer of the
Software Defined Radio Forum.

http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_softwaredefined_radios_near/index.htm
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