Abstract

Radio technology has advanced tremendously over the past century with increased capacities and addressing a disparate range of applications. However, from an external perspective, the design philosophies behind radio architectures and wireless standards remain rooted in the methodologies of the 1930’s. In this paper, we propose that this conservative approach has served the communication system engineer well for the past century, but it is now constraining the development of future communication devices and networks that are based on software defined radio technology. The scope for evolutionary improvement on the existing architectures is becoming limited, and it is now appropriate to reconsider our basic assumptions in order to determine whether a radically different approach may yield significant benefits in terms of system performance, cost, mobility, and functionality.