SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO ARCHITECTURE

• US 20090156129A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huitema, Christian, Shen, Hui, Hassan, Amer A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,107,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/66.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0003 Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00

Abstract

A computing device with a software defined radio. The software defined radio has an architecture with separate components to provide control functions and data processing functions. The control components configure the data processing components so that the software defined radio provides desired operating characteristics. To facilitate programming the software defined radio to communicate according to one or more wireless technologies, the computing device may include a library of wireless technology specifications. By accessing a technology specification in the library, the control components can determine an appropriate configuration of the data processing components for a selected wireless technology. The data processing components may be hardware or software and, if hardware and software components are available to perform a data processing function, the control components may select between the hardware and software components depending on throughput, processor loading or other criteria.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one antenna;

a plurality of hardware components, coupled to the at least one antenna, adapted to generate signals to transmit through the at least one antenna or process signals received through the at least one antenna, the operation of each of at least a portion of the plurality of hardware components being configurable in response to a control input;

computer-readable media comprising computer executable modules, the computer-executable modules comprising;

a data generating or consuming module for generating data for inclusion in the signals to transmit or to operate on data extracted from the signals received through the at least one antenna;

software defined radio modules, comprising;

a plurality of data processing modules, the plurality of data processing modules collectively configured to process data exchanged between the hardware components and the data generating or consuming module, at least a portion of the data processing modules being configurable in response to control inputs; and

a plurality of control modules, the plurality of control modules collectively for receiving an input defining a function of a radio and generating control signals to the control inputs of the portion of the data processing modules and the control inputs of the portion of the hardware components.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of hardware components comprises RF electronic components, a digital to analog converter and an analog to digital converter.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of data processing modules comprises a baseband processing module, a MAC process module and a packet processing module.

4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the packet processing module is adapted to form packets from data generated by the data generating or consuming module.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the MAC process module is adapted to process packets formed by the packet processing module.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable modules further comprise an operating system and at least a portion of the plurality of data processing modules comprise plug-ins to the operating system, each of the plug-ins interfacing to the operating system through a defined interface of the same format.

7. The computing device of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plug-ins is subject to digital rights management limiting execution of the at least one plug-in after a defined time.

8. The computing device of claim 6, wherein at least a first one of the plug-ins performs a packet processing function and at least a second one of the plug-ins performs a baseband radio function.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein at least a first module and a second module of the plurality of data processing modules performs a baseband radio function and a control module of the plurality of control modules controls execution of the first module and the second module to alter a function of the software defined radio.

10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the software defined radio comprises a first software defined radio and at least a first module and a second module of the plurality of data processing modules performs a baseband radio function and a control module of the plurality of control modules controls execution of the first module and the second module to implement the first software defined radio and a second software defined radio, the first software defined radio and the second software defined radio concurrently communicating using different wireless technologies.

11. A method of operating a computing device having hardware and software components implementing a software defined radio, the method comprising:

receiving a specification of a function of the software defined radio, the function comprising a plurality of sub-functions;

for a first subset of the plurality of sub-functions, generating control signals to the hardware components to implement the first subset of sub-functions in the hardware components;

for a second subset of the plurality of sub-functions, generating control signals to the software components to implement the second subset of sub-functions in the software components;

for a third subset of the plurality sub-functions, determining whether the computing device has hardware components adapted to implement sub-functions in the third subset of sub-functions, and,

for each sub-function in the third subset for which the device has hardware components to implement, generating control signals to the hardware components to implement the sub-function in the hardware components; and

for each sub-function in the third subset for which the device does not have hardware components to implement, generating control signals to the software components to implement the sub-function in the software components.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the third subset of the plurality of sub-functions comprises computing an FFT.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the third subset of the plurality of sub-functions comprises MAC packet framing.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the third subset of the plurality of sub-functions comprises a cryptographic operation.

15. A computing device comprising:

at least one antenna;

a plurality of hardware components, coupled to the at least one antenna, adapted to generate signals to transmit through the at least one antenna or process signals received through the at least one antenna, the operation of each of at least a portion of the plurality of hardware components being configurable in response to a control input;

computer-readable media comprising computer executable modules, the computer-executable modules comprising;

a data generating or consuming module for generating data for inclusion in the signals to transmit or to operate on data extracted from the signals received through the at least one antenna;

software defined radio modules, comprising;

a library of wireless technology specifications;

a plurality of data processing modules, the plurality of data processing modules collectively configured to process data exchanged between the hardware components and the data generating or consuming module, at least a portion of the data processing modules being configurable in response to control inputs;

a plurality of control modules, the plurality of control modules collectively for receiving an input identifying a wireless technology specification in the library and generating control signals to the control inputs of the portion of the data processing modules and the control inputs of the portion of the hardware components based on the identified wireless technology specification.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the plurality of data processing modules comprises hardware modules and software modules.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the library of wireless modules comprises a module specifying operation according to an 802.11 protocol.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the library of wireless modules comprises a module specifying operation according to an ad hoc network protocol.

19. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable media further comprises:

a computer-executable module for downloading into the library of wireless technology specifications a specification for a wireless technology, the downloading comprising downloading over a network.

20. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable media further comprises:

a computer-executable module for storing into the library of wireless technology specifications a specification for a wireless technology obtained from a group policy server.