US 7,573,863 B2
Method for real time control of transmit chain for software radios
Robert P. Boland, Wilmington, Mass. (US); Peter Simonson, Greenville, N.H. (US); Peter O. Luthi, Nashua, N.H. (US); and Matthew J. Thiele, Hampstead, N.H. (US)
Assigned to BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., Nashua, N.H. (US)
Filed on Aug. 22, 2002, as Appl. No. 10/225,701.
Prior Publication US 2004/0037282 A1, Feb. 26, 2004
Int. Cl. H04J 3/06 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 370—350  [370/509] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for the precision control of a software radio employing a transmit chain in the transmission of packetized data such that the transmit chain is configured in real time to transmit a realtime analog signal from the packet data, comprising the steps of:
generating packets of data to create realtime analog signals having components characterized by a periodic waveform, the packets having a header including a time stamp indicating when a packet is to be sent, the header describing the characteristics that the transmit chain is to have when transmitting a packet, the transmit chain generating a realtime analog signal having periodic waveform components timed to nanosecond accuracies greater than an accuracy associated with frame length, the transmit chain characteristics taken from the group consisting of frequency, amplitude and modulation type; and,
configuring the transmit chain in realtime responsive to the header describing the characteristics that the transmit chain is to have, whereby non-realtime processing can be accomplished by off-the-shelf components having non-realtime accuracies, the accuracy of the timing of the transmit chain being sufficient to generate and transmit the analog signals corresponding to the packet with nanosecond accuracies.