Integrating specialized hardware to JTRS/SCA software defined radios

The joint tactical radio system (JTRS) is a family of modular, multi-band, networked software defined radios that are compliant with an international open standard called the software communications architecture (SCA). In 2004, the JTRS Joint Program Office (JPO) organized an effort to develop a specialized hardware supplement (SHS) to the SCA to enable JTRS tactical radios to support high-speed data links and satellite communications (SATCOM). The -waveforms for these systems typically operate over 2 GHz. The SHS defines portability requirements for the components of these waveforms that target more specialized and resource-constrained environments commonly represented by digital signal processor (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA) and ASIC environments. At the time of the writing of this paper, change proposals are under review by JPO to replace the SHS. This paper presents one of these proposals: the component portability specification. The paper analyzes the principles that this specification is built on to extend the SCA waveform component portability. It examines the three goals the specification intended to achieve: portability, interoperability and replaceability. The paper concludes by articulating the impact of the SHS on existing waveforms and JTR sets