Software Radio: A Catalyst for Wireless Innovation

In this article, we deal with software radio in an original manner, emphasizing the fact that software radio is a major evolution of radio technologies and a convergence of different pre-existing fields. Joseph Mitola deserves credit for formalizing and conceptualizing this evolution. We do not define software radio. Rather, we look at software radio from different perspectives. New equipments include more and more software radio "capacities," that is, they can be reconfigured thanks to software. Certain former analog functionalities are now performed digitally. We think that the timeframe during which software radio is advantageous, compared to a velcro(1) approach for multi-standard terminals, is probably over. However, software radio has taken concrete form in the military field. We show that software radio is used de facto in all equipment and products because of the technological progress to which it has led. Software radio's legacy indeed is that it has been and still is a catalyst for wireless innovation. We conclude by showing that software radio will be used to its full potential when it is the support technology for other more complex fields such as cognitive radio.