Abstract:
Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication technology in
which the functionality is defined in the software instead of hardware. This allows
for easy, efficient and low-cost upgrades as no hardware replacement is required.
The software radio will use frequency hopping as the frequency translation scheme
for robust and reliable communication. In Frequency hopping, the radio frequency
of transmission continuously changes according to a pseudorandom pattern known
only to the transmitter and receiver. This scheme makes the communication link
more robust to the affects of jammers. Therefore frequency hopping offers a more
secure mode of communication in comparison to conventional fixed frequency
telecommunication links.
The proposed transceiver design will be implemented on an SDR
platform which has an inbuilt RF module. Therefore, most of the transceiver
operations such as digital signal processing, amplification, equalization and
filtering will be software based. SDR implementation makes it easier to improve
and redesign the components in software. The transceiver design is such as to
allow all signal processing and data acquisition to take place at baseband
frequencies after elimination of intermediate frequency (IF). This means there is
less power consumption.
The transceiver will be a slow frequency hopping system (SFH) which
means that the hopping rate will be lower than symbol transmission rate. We will
use Quaternary Frequency Shift Keying (QFSK) in which each symbol is itself
represented by a particular frequency determined by the two bits present in the
symbol
