Evolution toward reconfigurable user equipment

To date, research into reconfigurable mobile communications has predominantly focused on the software radio concept, and specifically on the hardware technologies required to move physical layer processing into a programmable environment. Although an interesting and necessary challenge, this only represents a fraction of the overall support and technology required to realize the potential of the concept. Other necessary developments include network/terminal cooperation for seamless interstandard handoff, QoS management, a secure software download mechanism, terminal software architecture supporting reconfiguration, configuration management, capability negotiation, and so on. Summarizing results from early project deliverables from a European Research project, IST-TRUST (Transparently Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Terminal), this article describes the likely overall system environment and the key technical challenges to be researched for realizing a reconfigurable terminal to meet the needs of users within that environment