Software Defined Radio for Communications

Abstract

Software Defined Radio (SDR) has evolved in the past decade from a topic that was only briefly mentioned in passing in graduate special topics courses to one that is now accessible to students at all levels. The rapid proliferation of cost effective SDR hardware has allowed not only the development of undergraduate SDR communication labs, but affordable test instrumentation that may be used in a variety of courses. This paper will outline a series of hardware choices and exercises that make SDR not just a topic for advanced communications, but a topic that can enhance undergraduate and graduate courses in communications, analog and digital signal processing, and instrumentation.