Design and performance trade-offs in parallelized RF SDR architecture

Abstract

Multi-radio platforms are an interesting design concept. Executing multiple radios on a shared platform presents opportunities not only for component re-use but also for better data throughputs, as non-active radios may dynamically yield resources for active ones. This enhances the conventional SDR approach in the RF domain and provides means to optimize resources in platform level when taking the link and network traffic issues into account. Such flexibility can provide opportunities for future cognitive radios when operating in heterogeneous networks. The downside is increased RF interference, and thus, receiver desensitization. We review the design and performance trade-offs of multi-radio platforms focusing on LTE and WLAN and present motivation for simple co-operation mechanisms to their future revisions.