Software Defined Radio Pursuing Generic Development Environment

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Software Defined Radio Pursuing Generic
Development Environment
Military CIS Conference, 24 September 2008
M.Sc. (EE) Eero Rikkonen Defence Forces Technical
Research Centre Electronics and Information
Technology Division
M.Sc (EE) Heikki Rantanen Defence Forces
Technical Research Centre Electronics and
Information Technology Division
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Contents

• Divergence of SDR architectures
• Interoperability and portability
• Waveform development
• Future approach Formal design methodology

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SCA and military SDRs

• SCA, developed and managed by JTRS program in
  USA, is de facto standard in military SDR radios
• only ONE software architecture (JTRS SCA) in USA
• programs in Europe have different architectures
• European military SDR, ESSOR, SCA-based
  architecture
• European public safety, WINTSEC, OMG
  specification
• ? this divergence of SDR architectures can
  constitute a challenge for European SDR
  interoperability and waveform portability
• some stakeholders might want to run both public
  safety and military waveforms in the same radio

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The development of SCA the European Defence
Agency (EDA) view

• EDA vision currently running European SDR
  programs will
• attract the industry interest
• trigger industry to develop mil/sec/civ SCA

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Will commercial world adopt SCA?

• one of the original aims of JTRS program is to
  promote the use of SCA also in commercial
  applications
• this is also the aim of SDR Forum
• nevertheless, commercial mobile communication
  companies have not shown big interest in SCA
• the main advantage of SCA is waveform portability
• not relevant for companies like Nokia, Ericsson
  etc at least not today
• Nokia Industry can not fix to only certain
  specific technical solutions.
• ( SDR Forum Conference, November 2007)

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Achieving interoperability

• interoperability is the main driver for the vast
  interest in SDR technology
• increased interoperability emerges from the
  portability of waveform software
• dissimilar hardware can be made interoperable
  through sharing of such software
• level of abstraction influences the porting
  effort
• trade-off between universality and unambigous
  implementation

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Portability the NATO view

• two levels of implementation
• Base WF
• platform independent
• implemented in C
• Target WF
• platform specific
• waveform sharing is done at the Base WF level
• aim is to create and maintain a library of Base
  WF codes
• 70 percent code reuse achieved (SCA compliant
  software and hardware)
• interoperability through software sharing

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Drawbacks of the NATO view

• fixed to only one technique
• Is SCA-based approach dominant also in the
  future?
• C code is not very expressive
• implementation of the possible changes in
  standards requires heavy engineering effort
• porting effort still considerable

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Waveform development

• signal processing functionality
• model-based tools to model, simulate and test the
  signal processing functionality and algorithms
• modern tools are capable of generating the source
  code automatically
• software architecture
• signal processing functionality is embedded into
  architectural software components
• needed to enable portability

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WDEs for SCA compliant SDRs

• effective tools prerequisite for wider use and
  acceptance of any SDR software architecture
• several development environments exist for SCA
• waveform designer is responsible for
• adding the actual loadable or executable code of
  the hardware components
• designing the data transfer between hardware
  components
• future WDEs for SDR will not only support SCA
  based platforms but wide diversity of different
  kind of platforms
• SCA, non-SCA , RFIC-based...

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Formal design methodology

• raised level of abstraction provides universality
• provides means for achieving portability
• not fixed to single implementation
• applicable to SCA, non-SCA , RFIC-based...

• SDR Forum in the future largest benefits from a
  model-based tool supporting
• expressive modelling
• performance prediction
• code generation

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Model-driven Architecture (MDA)

• Model-driven Architecture (MDA) specification
  released by Object Management Group (OMG)
• to separate the specification of system
  functionality from the specification of the
  implementation of that functionality on a
  specific technology platform
• Platform Independent Model (PIM)
• higher level models, technical details abstracted
  away
• specify the function and structure of the system
• Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• Platform Specific Model (PSM)
• more specific system description
• target platform taken into account
• target programming language, e.g. C

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Model-driven Architecture (MDA)
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MDA and Software Defined Radio

• the primary goals of MDA are portability,
  interoperability and reusability
• consistent with the military SDR programs
• benefits of MDA
• PIMs are platform independent and the same PIM
  can be automatically transformed into multiple
  PSMs for different platforms
• same PIM can be retargeted to new platforms as
  new technologies emerge
• developers only need to focus on high-level
  models
• code might be generated automatically by MDA
  tools
• reduced cost, shorter time-to-market
• Model once, transform to any platform

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Design approaches

• some approaches for design methodology are
  emerging
• Lyra design method by Nokia
• Koski design flow by DACI Research Group at
  Tampere University of Technology
• these approaches
• are based on formal methodology for specifying
  hardware and software components
• utilize UML and are able to create executable
  models
• model the workload independent of the platform
• can simulate and estimate the performance of the
  application on different platforms
• can create target code automatically

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Future development tools

• The advantages of utilizing future development
  tool
• ability to express the desired design
• changes in specification or standard much more
  easily fitted into the model
• automated code generation allows updating of the
  target software directly from the high-level
  models
• performance of the application or system can be
  evaluated
• workload modelling
• hardware processing capabilites
• software architecture
• possibility to select the most suitable platform
  for implementation
• optimized allocation of processing resources

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Certified tools and model sharing

• certification of the tools would
• facilitate portability through model sharing
• models need to be explicit enough
• e.g. UML and Simulink
• decrease the number of different stages in the
  development process
• less errors
• less critical configuration management
• make authentication requirements for security
  reasons less stringent
• tool generating the code already known and
  certified!
• model sharing is a new approach to portability

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Conclusions

• the use of generic WDE could dramatically affect
  waveform portability and interoperability between
  military, public safety, and civilian domains
• emergence of such tools could initiate the
  long-awaited explosion of the SDR markets
• development of future generic WDE is a potential
  co-operation topic
• benefits for military domain
• enhanced portability through model sharing
• less stringent security requirements for software
  authentication
• less critical configuration management

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• Thank You!
• Questions?