A software defined radio testbed implementation

We report on the implementation of a software defined radio (SDR) based on state-of-the-art digital signal processors (DSPs), which are linked serially to PCs. While time critical operations are executed on specialised transmit and receive processors with a fixed block structure, the baseband processing is performed on highly flexible DSPs. The latter run several concurrent functionalities, such as the reception of data over a serial link, the assembly of symbols and frames for transmission, as well as receiver functions such as a fractionally spaced equaliser for synchronisation and mitigation of potentially dispersive channels under a DSP/BIOS system. The testbed system is capable of transmitting packets of data over the SDR link.