Broadband deep memory testing via virtual instrumentation

The broadband wireless communications environment of military signal testing demands reusability and flexibility. Coupled with this requirement is the fact that diverse military organizations are now in need of modularized virtual instrumentation, which can handle multi-banded and frequency agile radios. The implementation of advanced signal analysis techniques and ultra-broadband signal generation can be effectively accomplished using a range of modular input and output hardware configurations to produce large instantaneous bandwidths. This technique also requires the modularization of the software drivers and graphical user interfaces. These broadband signals can be buffered into large memory banks and aligned in software. This allows an array of analysis and generation instruments to operate simultaneously to meet the requirements of the complete test environment. A major benefit of these virtual instrumentation techniques is the ability to develop instruments where the total cost and time of testing can be minimized, with the added benefit of minimizing obsolescence through virtual instrument reconfiguration.