What is a Software Defined Radio?
A Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio communication system that employs reconfigurable software-based components for processing and conversion of digital signals. They consist of an analog front-end and a digital back-end and hence have both an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). SDRs also have a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with various onboard digital processing capabilities like modulation, demodulation, up-conversion and down-conversion.
The reconfigurability of Software Defined Radios makes them highly flexible and versatile allowing new algorithms and protocols to be implemented easily and without modifying the existing hardware. They are ideal for a broad array of markets including various mission-critical applications such as radar, test and measurement, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), global navigation satellite system (GNSS), low latency links and spectrum and monitoring.
Important parameters when looking for Software Defined Radios:
- Operating frequency: It is the range of frequencies at which the software-defined radio operates.
- Number of Tx/Rx channels: It is the number of transmit/receive channels supported by the software-defined radio.
- Data Rate: This is the maximum speed at which a software-defined radio can transmit and receive RF signals.
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