Canadian software radio developers choose Spectrum Signal's flexComm technology

MARCH 28

OTTAWA -- Canadian researchers needed special communications software to help them develop a software-defined radio architecture that enables users to plug in different waveforms and switch between air interfaces, as well as integrate with different wireless systems. The flexComm software from Spectrum Signal Processing in Burnaby, British Columbia, met their needs.

Sponsoring this project are the Communications Research Canada (CRC) and the Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in Ottawa. Experts from the two organizations are developing a software radio for military organizations throughout the world.

Spectrum's flexComm technology enables systems designers to enhance and interoperate through software downloads without altering or buying new radio hardware, Spectrum officials say. This enables users easily to reconfigure generic hardware and tailor its capabilities to their needs, Spectrum officials say.

"We believe that the software-defined radios are the technology of the future and will replace existing legacy radios in the battlefield," says Robin Addison, leader of the CRC/DRDC Reconfigurable Omni-Band Radio project. "

"The advantages of a single, reconfigurable platform supporting multiple waveforms for both terrestrial and satellite communications cannot be overstated," Addison says.

The Reconfigurable Omni-Band Radio project is the first Java implementation that complies with the Software Communications Architecture from the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) specification from the U.S. Department of Defense, Spectrum officials say.

Java is a programming language that generations applications able to run on many different computer architectures without modification. The goal of JTRS is to evolve old radios to systems compliant with the JTRS open-systems architecture.