Software Communications Architecture Research Articles

ENHANCEMENT OF BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY IN SOFTWARE COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE (SCA) STANDARDS AMONG SCA COMPLAINT SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIOS (SDR)

Since World War-II, world is developing newer communication radio continuously by spending efforts, money and assets. After digital communication systems are invented, the development is rapidly progressing at every country. With globalization in mind, country-to-country starts interacting with each other and begins to share their radios too for operations. In military-to-military contact, there exists a problem of incompatibility of radios between friendly countries. With the Software inventions and mathematical processor improvements, Software Defined Radio (SDR) started appearing in both military and commercial world. We explore the SDR and suggest some Universal standards in Software Communication Architecture (SCA) which can be followed for mitigating the interoperability problem. With SCA-compliant-SDR, the radio can be reconfigured with high flexibility for multi-band-multi-mode capability with maximum portability.

Shortwave spatial spectrum direction finding and positioning system based on software communication architecture

With the rapid advances in digital signal processing technology, spatial spectrum estimation theory and technology has been widely used in various fields and has become a new favorite in radio direction finding and passive positioning fields. This paper constructs a new shortwave spatial spectrum direction finding and positioning system, which establishes a standard interoperable platform based on software communication architecture (SCA). Meanwhile, a new shortwave co-location method is put forward, which realizes the flexible networking of the new shortwave spatial spectral direction finding system through the optical fiber or Ethernet. Besides, cyclic direction of arrival (DOA) estimation and weighted average method are applied to improve the positioning accuracy under complex environments. Simulation results show that this method has good positioning performance and stability.

Using OpenCL to Increase SCA Application Portability

The Software Communications Architecture has become the de facto standard to build Software Defined Radio radios. Over one hundred thousand SCA military radios have been deployed worldwide by several nations. The SCA offers a component-based operating environment for the creation of portable applications. SCA applications are portable across different heterogeneous embedded distributed system. For performance reasons, application software gets optimized using specialized instructions sets supported by General Purpose Processors, Digital Signal Processors Graphical Processing Units. As a result, the level of portability of the source code can decrease significantly. Moreover, portability is considered to be a major challenge when Field Programmable Gate Arrays are used. Specialized instruction sets are widely used for high performance military radio platforms. Consequently, finding a solution to increase portability of SCA applications across different operating environments could provide significant cost reductions. This paper describes how the Open Computing Language (OpenCL™) can be used in conjunction with the SCA to increase the portability of applications that need to perform intensive signal processing.

Model-Based Systems Engineering: Lessons Learned from the Joint Tactical Radio System

The Joint Tactical Radio System was the first major program that sought to develop a new family of radio systems using a software-based architecture. A new software-oriented architecture, the Software Communications Architecture was developed as a common, interoperable foundation for this new family of tactical radios. The fundamental objective was to enable radio systems to support multiple waveforms, allow for software-only upgrades of operational capabilities and ultimately reduce the tail-end logistics, maintenance and upgrade costs. However, within the first few years the program experienced difficulties and setbacks resulting in cost and schedule overruns. Several program reviews and analyses were performed to assess the reasons for the problems encountered. Although multiple causes were cited for the failures, this paper puts forth the assertion that a key aspect of the engineering process, systems engineering, was not planned into the program and a fundamental cause for many of the issues encountered.

Guest Editorial: Evolutionary Advancements in Wireless Software Defined Radio Systems

The field of wireless communications over the years has been constantly making significant advancements in the domain of Software Defined Radios (SDRs). These reconfigurable radios are also capable to learn from their environment like the spectrum and then undertake rapid decisions based on its selfdefined policies leading to the development of wider range of new applications. Thus, new topics and concepts are not only been investigated in the Digital Signal Processing domain but also in the Cognitive Radio domain for an effective and efficient use of the spectrum. Using such technologies with widely accepted international standards like the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) in military software defined radios also requires that they go through the testing and certification processes. Thus, in this Special Issue of the Springer Journal of Signal Processing Systems, all these topics leading towards the evolution of SDRs are discussed. This Special Issue comprises of three sets containing a total of nine articles. The first set of articles put focus on the various cognitive radio technologies like Dynamic Spectrum Access and Spectrum Sensing. The still existing inefficient use of the spectrum is discussed in various SDR research communities. New and innovative ideas are continuously investigated to use the spectrum in the most efficient way in order to meet the ever growing demands of high data throughput. Use of Cognitive Radios is one such way to achieve it. These radios are able to sense the radio environment in order to identify portions of the spectrum that are unused at a specific time or location and are able to reconfigure themselves. Various algorithms and techniques are being investigated to achieve such results in a dynamic environment. The second set of articles discusses several advanced Digital Signal Processing techniques. All these techniques aim at optimizing operationally relevant criteria. These criteria vary from achieving higher robustness, lower bit error rates, longer communication ranges, and minimal energy consumption to faster deployments. The proofs of the achievements are given either by simulation or by prototype implementation on off-the-shelf low cost hardware. The third set of articles illustrates the importance test and certification of Software Defined Radios in the military domain using internationally accepted standard like the SCA. Standards like the SCA allow waveforms to be ported easily across heterogeneous platforms. It also provides neatly defined interfaces and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) aimed to increase portability and interoperability of radios. In the final phase of the development of SDRs, efficient ways of testing and agencies providing the certification of standards play a significant role. * Marc Adrat marc.adrat@fkie.fraunhofer.de

Achieving SCA Conformance Testing with Model-Based Testing

The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) is a software architecture provided and published by the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC). Facing the multiplicity of the waveforms and the div...

Parallel FM Signal Demodulation System based on Software Radio Platform

A parallel FM signal demodulation system is designed in this paper. All FM signals from 90MHz to 110MHz could be captured, separated and restored into original information. The method of digital channelized receiving is used in the system to divide the broadband signals into independent ones according to their center frequency. This design could be used in the field of electron reconnaissance and multichannel communication system. We realized the design on a software radio platform based on the structure of SCA (Software Communication Architecture), and the advantages of this ideal is discussed in the paper.

Studies on inter-component communication latency based on variation number of components and packet size in SDR-SCA waveform application

The ability to use software defined radio SDR in the civilian mobile applications will open up the next generation of mobile devices to reality such as multi-standard personal wireless devices or ubiquitous wireless devices. Many challenges in commercialising SDR are still the subject of interest in the software radio research community. Four main issues that have been already addressed are performance, size, weight, and power. The investigation presents in-depth study of SDR inter-components communications in terms of total link delay related to the number of components and packet sizes in software communication architecture SCA-based systems. The study is based on the investigation of the controlled environment platform. Results indicate the total link delay did not linearly increase with the number of components and the packet sizes. The closed form expression of the delay was modelled using the logistic function in terms of the number of components and packet sizes. The model performed very well when the number of components was large.

The software communications architecture: two decades of software radio technology innovation

What began more than 20 years ago as a U.S. Department of Defense project aimed at implementing a radio system that could be reprogrammed on the fly to support multiple waveforms has evolved to become a widely adopted, versatile, and industry-changing architecture. The resulting Software Communication Architecture has now been deployed in more than 400,000 radios worldwide. This article explores the evolution of the SCA starting with its origins back in the SPEAKEasy Program to the upcoming release of SCA 4.1.

An emergency communication system based on software-defined radio

Wireless telecommunications represent an important asset for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) organizations as they improve the coordination and the distribution of information among first responders in the field. In large international disaster scenarios, many different PPDR organizations may participate to the response phase of disaster management. In this context, PPDR organizations may use different wireless communication technologies; such diversity may create interoperability barriers and degrade the coordination among first-time responders. In this paper, we present the design, the integration, and the testing of a demonstration system based on software-defined radio (SDR) technology and software communication architecture (SCA) to support PPDR operations with special focus on the provision of satellite communications. This paper describes the main components of the demonstration system, the integration activities as well as the testing scenarios, which were used to evaluate the technical feasibility. The paper also describes the main technical challenges in the implementation and integration of the demonstration system. Finally, future developments for this technology and potential deployment challenges are presented.

Special Issue on Efficiency in Wireless Software-Defined Radio Systems

Efficient and effective broadband wireless technologies are required to support the foreseeable need to process and exchange large amounts of data. In this Special Issue of the Springer Journal of Signal Processing Systems various disciplines of such efficiency and effectiveness in the context of Software-Defined Radio (SDR) technologies are discussed. At first, a selection of articles focuses on “spectral efficiency”. Since frequency spectrum is known to be scarce and limited, it becomes a resource of increasing value whose utilization must be handled with care. The rapidly growing demand for higher data throughputs in wireless communication does not allow inefficient use of spectrum anymore. Two promising approaches to tackle the “spectral efficiency” issue are Cognitive Radio (CR) and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). A Cognitive Radio is capable of learning and adapting to its transmission environment. Taking e.g. spectrum sensing results into account, the decisions for accessing the scarce frequency spectrum in the most flexible and effective manner are made. CRs are typically based on SDR technology. Thus, the first set of articles puts emphasis on topics in the areas of Cognitive Radio, Cognitive Radio Networks, and Spectrum Sensing. The second selection of articles addresses the problems of “energy efficiency” and “implementation efficiency”. Especially in wireless communications these types of efficiencies are highly important to increase battery time of modern SDRbased platforms. The architectures of such SDRs are typically based on heterogeneous multi-processor hardware platforms hosting General Purpose Processors (GPP), Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and sometimes even more specific processing elements. Each type of processor has a specific advantage in one or the other performance criterion like energy consumption, flexibility, processing time, throughput, waveform portability, components reusability etc. Whenever a new waveform shall be implemented on an SDR, the system designer has to take the decision for the best possible trade-off between all of these, partly conflicting, criteria under the given circumstances. For instance, the portability of waveform components can be improved by fulfilling the constraints of the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) specification and by using common Application Programming Interfaces (API). Thus, the second set of articles puts particular emphasis on topics in the areas of SDR and SCA Implementations.

Design of Software Defined Radio Platform Resource Model Based on SCA

Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform resource model is the description and organization of the SDR platform resource. Its the foundation of the SDR platform resource management. Through these years, the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) has becoming the most famous specification for SDR, which standardizes the description for the SDR platform resource. Aiming at the shortages of the resource model in SCA, this paper discusses a SDR platform resource model, proposes a transfer port model and a connection model, designs a nested data model for the SDR platform resource, and a plane graph model which is easy to analyze and process.

The structural features of distributed programmable wireless systems

This article investigates the structural characteristics of distributed programmable wireless systems based on the principles of Software Defined Radio with open architecture Software Communication Architecture

Classes of Attacks for Tactical Software Defined Radios

This survey presents a classification of attacks that Software Communications Architecture (SCA) compliant Software Defined Radios (SDR) can suffer. This paper also discusses how attack mitigation strategies can impact the development of a SCA-compliant software infrastructure and identifies several research directions related to SDR security. The SCA standard was originally proposed by the Joint Tactical Radio System program (JTRS), which is a program for the development of military tactical radios sponsored by the US Department of Defense. The classification presented in this paper is based on attack results on the radio set, which can also be associated with the adversary’s objectives when planning an intrusion. The identification of classes of attacks on a radio, along with the associated threats and vulnerabilities, is the first step in engineering a secure SDR system. It precedes the identification of security requirements and the development of security mechanisms. Therefore, the identification of classes of attacks is a necessary step for the definition of realistic and relevant security requirements.

Impact of the Use of Object Request Broker Middleware for Inter-Component Communications in C6416 Digital Signal Processor Based Software Communications Architecture Radio Systems

Problem statement: This study presents an in-depth analysis of the performance of Software Communications Architecture (SCA) component-based waveform applications in terms of inter-component communications. The main limitation with SCA, in the context of embedded systems, is the additional cost introduced by the use of Object Request Broker (ORB) middleware. The ORB middleware handles the interaction between components and objects in SCA distributed environment. This interaction should be highly efficient, due to the real time nature of SCA systems and transparent to the application programmer. Approach: We can achieve high efficiency in SCA systems by enhancing the Inter-Process Communications (IPC) mechanisms in Operating systems (OS) micro kernels, while we achieve transparency through Interface Definition Language (IDL). Different encoding mechanisms like “External Data Representation (XDR), Network Data Representation (NDR) and Common Data Representation (CDR) facilitate inter-component communication transparently and efficiently”. Marshalling procedures format data from the local machine representation to common network representations. A most common encoding mechanism for Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) systems is CDR representation. Measurements have been performed with ORBExpress DSP as a CORBA distribution and Open Source SCA Implementation Embedded (OSSIE) for SCA implementation. In order to perform these measurements we proposed two metrics for profiling the ORB that are invocation and marshalling. In addition, we propose three elements of data types to evaluate the performance of ORB middleware that are, Basic, Array and Sequence data types. Results: The CORBA bus is really the part, which brings an overhead to the SCA radio systems. This overhead is due to method invocations that have been carried out by ORB middleware. Conclusion: Performance benchmarks of ORBExpress DSP middleware show that, although using CORBA for inter-component communications introduces delays and overheads, the overall effect can be reduced by sending packets of data instead of basic data type elements.

Energy Efficient Architecture Using Hardware Acceleration for Software Defined Radio Components

In order to make cognitive radio systems a practical technology to be deployed in real-world scenarios, the core Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems must meet the stringent requirements of the target application, especially in terms of performance and energy consumption for mobile platforms. In this paper we present a feasibility study of hardware acceleration as an energy-efficient implementation for SDR. We identified the amplifier function from the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) for hardware acceleration since it is one of the functions called for most frequently and it requires intensive floating-point computation. Then, we used the Virtex5 Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to perform a comparison between compiler floating-point support and the on-chip floating-point support. By enabling the on-chip floating-point unit (FPU), we obtained as high as a 2X speedup and 50% of the overall energy reduction. We achieved this with an increase of the power consumption by no more than 0.68%. This demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed approach.

How different messaging semantics can affect SCA applications performances: a benchmark comparison

Software Communications Architecture (SCA) compliant radios typically contain a large number of software components. Some software components provide access to hardware devices while others perform signal processing. By interacting with each other, the software components implement a radio communications standard. To interact, the software components use a middleware called Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Using CORBA, each interaction is carried out as an exchange of messages between two components. CORBA supports two main types of messaging: one-way and two-way. This article explores the differences between the two types of messaging and provides performance metrics. The article also describes design approaches that can be used to avoid common pitfalls associated with the use of both types of messaging.

Implementation of smart antenna API and transceiver API in software communication architecture for a wireless innovation forum standard

This study presents an implementation of the standard smart antenna (SA) application programming interface (API) and Transceiver API developed by the wireless innovation forum's (WINNF) smart anten...

The EULER project: application of software defined radio in joint security operations

The task of improving the effectiveness of public safety communications has become a main priority for governments. This is partly motivated by the increased risk of natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, and fires, and partly due to the risks and consequent impact of terrorist attacks. This article focuses on the experience from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme project known as EULER, which seeks to demonstrate the benefits of software defined radio technology to support the resolution of natural disasters of significant stature, which require the participation of different public safety and military organizations, potentially of different nations. In such scenarios, the presence of interoperability barriers in the disaster area is a major challenge because different organizations may use different wireless communication systems. In this context, the main aspect investigated in EULER is the definition of a common waveform that respects the software communications architecture constraints, and guarantees maximum portability across SDR platforms. This article discusses a range of issues that have been identified thus far within the EULER project; in particular, the perceived pan-European interoperability needs of public safety, and coordination with military devices and networks. Aspects of interoperability are also extended to the three dimensions of platform, waveform, and information assurance.

Unified System Level Fault Modeling and Fault Propagation

Fault modeling is an important step towards both understanding and validating the implemented system. The focus of the paper is to present a unified system fault modelling framework, including input related faults model based on system theory. The complex embedded system (CES) is modelled using sequence of communicating FSM (SCFSM) and the system faults are represented by two components of system fault vector - system behaviour fault vector and system communication fault vector. These two system fault vector components are related and are components of the “change parameter vector (”, a general system level fault model based on Dynamic system theory. Input related faults are defined and their contribution is discussed. Faults propagation in mixed hardware software communication architecture is discussed, with the help of protocol example.