In 1992, Dr. Joseph Mitola proposed taking a “software intensive approach” to radio spectrum. Prior to this, spectrum allocation was viewed as “real estate” to be parceled out (or sold via auctions to the highest bidder), and radios operated on whatever frequency they were assigned.
But since the early 90s, software defined radio (SDR)—sometimes called cognitive radio (it’s ALIVE!)—has automatically detected available spectrum and switched frequencies when needed. This will become increasingly important as more and more IoT devices come online; 20.4 billion by 2020, according to Gartner. Add to that the growth of military and commercial drones, wearables, and medical equipment, and you can see why some analysts predict SDR will be worth $29 billion by 2021.
To help us unpick the future of smart radio, PCMag met up with Professor Linda Doyle, Professor of Engineering and The Arts in Trinity College Dublin before she gave her keynote speech at the recent DARPA SDR Hackfest event in Silicon Valley.
Alongside her professorial duties, Dr. Doyle is also Director of CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications, and a member of the National Broadband Steering Committee (Ireland) and Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board (UK).
“Software radio, when it first took off, promised much,” said Dr. Doyle. “While the vision of a world of dynamic spectrum access that often accompanied those promises has not been fully realized, we are in a world where spectrum sharing is more accepted. But I want the powers that be, in the communications world, most especially in the cellular world, to be significantly challenged as we move now towards dense small cells—on city buildings and other infrastructure, the softwareization of the network, more opportunities for spectrum sharing, and new industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands, which make it possible for a radical new way forward.”