Software Defined Radio - Rate of Adoption

The Wireless Innovation Forum commissioned a number of research reports in 2006 to evaluate the adoption of SDR technologies in various markets. The results of these studies demonstrated that, in certain markets, SDR is moving beyond the innovators and early adopters as defined by Geoffrey Moore in “Crossing the Chasm” into the early majority phase defining the mainstream market*. In this phase, adopters select a technology not because it is innovative or visionary but because it has been shown to successfully solve a problem within their specific market.

Examples of SDR adoption illustrating the transition to the mainstream are abundant: 

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• Thousands of software defined radios have been successfully deployed in defense applications
• Cellular infrastructure systems are increasingly using programmable processing devices to create “common platform” or “multiband-multiprotocol”  base stations supporting multiple cellular infrastructure standards 
• Cellular handsets are increasingly utilizing System on Chip (SoC) devices that incorporate programmable “DSP Cores” to support the baseband signal/modem processing
• Satellite “modems” in the commercial and defense markets make pervasive use of programmable processing devices for intermediate frequency and baseband signal processing

While these types of systems are often not marketed as “SDR’s”, they utilize and benefit from SDR technologies to solve market specific problems such as; cost of development, cost of production, cost of upgrades and maintenance, time to market in supporting new and evolving air interface standards, or problems associated with network interoperability.

In addition, the Wireless Innovation Forum’s market and technology studies have shown that cost effective radio frequency technologies supporting the operation of software defined radios over a broad spectral range have begun to mature, allowing for the first time the use of software defined radio as an enabling technology for dynamic spectrum access systems with cognitive or smart radio functionality. This trend is expected to continue over the next several years, allowing SDR to finally achieve the defined vision of reducing costs in providing end-users with access to ubiquitous wireless communications – enabling them to communicate with whomever they need, whenever they need to and in whatever manner is appropriate

* Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm (Revised Addition), Harper Collins Publishers, 2002

Other Pages in this section:
- Introduction to SDR
- Benefits of SDR
- SDR Value Chain
- SDR Related Technologies
Click here for a pdf of all the pages in this section.