Profitability of commercial software defined radio

By Etherstack

Radio is changing - at the moment, the behaviour of a radio network is decided when it is manufactured, planned and built. It is unable to adapt to the communications needs of its participants when it is actually used.

On-The-Fly System Configuration

Etherstack specialises in two progressive technologies – interchangeable protocol stacks (waveforms) for the radio, and multi-protocol cross-banding networks – that allow clients to build systems in which communication between equipment that differs in vendor, RF frequency or air interface protocol can be forged after the system has been deployed. Similarly, system capabilities can be changed over time via software upgrade without upgrading hardware.

About Etherstack

Etherstack is an independent, specialist provider of wireless communications software – from air interface protocol waveforms to all-IP core networks, vocoders and cryptographic solutions.

Etherstack’s platform independent software is a radio component; it does not differentiate a product to an end user. Working with Etherstack enables manufacturers to easily and rapidly build standards-based wireless communications products and to focus on features of most value to their end-users, such as robust design, packaging, user interface and system architecture.

With Etherstack’s protocol stacks and multi-protocol, cross-banding IP networks, clients can build simple, low cost products or complete, fully flexible wide-area or field deployable radio systems. SCA compliant versions of all protocol stacks are available.

The company is headquartered in London with offices in Barcelona, New York, Yokohama and Sydney.

Leaders in Commercial Software Defined Radio

Etherstack was the first company in the world to develop wireless air interface protocol stacks (waveforms) as a specialist commercial activity.

Etherstack’s origins lie in providing MPT1327, TETRA and APCO P25 protocol stacks (waveforms) to Land Mobile Radio (LMR) manufacturers. The first digital LMR radios used discrete, generic general purpose and digital signal processors and can therefore be considered the earliest commercial Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms to go to market. Recognising that waveform development for such platforms was a complex and therefore specialised activity, Etherstack set out to meet this need. In the process the company pioneered unique hardware abstraction concepts key to ensuring true software portability, maintainability and performance (PMP).

Without correct waveform design, the real value of software defined radio – software reusability, upgradability and portability – cannot be achieved.

After more than a decade of successful commercial applications, Etherstack offers a proven approach to wireless software design and has grown to become the world’s leading independent supplier of wireless protocol software to LMR industry manufacturers.

Etherstack Clients

Etherstack works or has worked with almost all manufacturers in the public safety, LMR and tactical communications industries around the world.

The company has also won multiple defence Software Communications Architecture (SCA) based waveform contracts. Examples are government projects such as provision of its SCA-ported TETRA Mobile/Handheld waveform to the Swedish Defence Ministry as part of the international program of the U.S. DoD JTRS project, and commercial defence SDR projects such as provision of its P25 Mobile/Handheld waveform and Type 3 encryption suite to the Harris Red/Black Falcon III SCA radio family. Etherstack also participates in SDR/SCA related forums in Europe and America, such as the SDR Forum, WINTSEC and others.

Building Commercial Protocol Stacks and Waveforms

Etherstack specialises in proven proprietary techniques, tools and skills that allow swift, cost efficient software development and waveform design excellence. The company’s goal is to minimize customers’ costs, risk and time to market, whilst providing software that is uniquely flexible, portable, reusable and maintainable – and can be optimised for best performance on any potential embedded radio platform.

System capabilities can also be changed over time via software upgrade without upgrading hardware, and SCA compliant versions of all protocol stacks are available.

Etherstack’s waveform engineers combine embedded software design and SDR waveform abstraction techniques with a detailed knowledge of different mobile radio communications standards (such as APCO P25, TETRA, DMR, and MPT1327), cellular/high-speed data standards (such as GSM, UMTS, WiMAX and LTE) and military communications specifications.

They company’s original waveform development teams are still intact and comprise a combined SDR waveform experience running into hundreds of man-years.

Waveform Development with Etherstack

Process
Occasionally Etherstack’s waveforms suit a client’s needs off-the-shelf. Usually, a varying amount of development is necessary to include all the features in the communications standard that are required and to exclude those that are not, so that the client does not pay for functionality they will not use. Often, proprietary features also need to be incorporated.

Etherstack offers complete commercial SDR waveform solutions that include documentation, source code, and test and hardware abstraction environments that are unique to the company. Specification, integration and support services are also provided; Etherstack engineers work side by side with those of the client at every stage of the project and to transition technology from team to team in a structured manner.

Licensing
Etherstack is flexible with its licensing model to suit clients. For development a fixed price is usually quoted that includes all deliverables and all services as well as ongoing maintenance contracts for as long as required. This mitigates the clients’ risk of cost creep during development.

Commercial SDR Waveforms
Etherstack waveforms have been designed from outset to be highly portable, and have been successfully integrated to a wide variety of platforms. Each waveform consists of a series of layers (coinciding as much as possible with the ISO/OSI model) and sub-modules that have well defined interfaces and can be deployed across the same or separate processing nodes as required by the platform, to a very fine resolution.

These layers, which provide the protocol stack or signal-in-space function, are supported by a "Core Services" hardware abstraction module. This module reduces reliance on the target operating system to a minimum, so that choice of RTOS becomes immaterial.

A modular, abstracted design approach such as this allows Etherstack to maintain a common code core, to port the solution to various targets in a short space of time, and to generate solutions with a very low footprint and overhead. From the base waveform signal processing optimisation is performed as necessary for optimal execution on the platform as part of the services offered with license purchase.

Fully Automated Test Environment
All waveforms are delivered with a large suite of functional tests and a test execution and analysis framework that supports both automated testing of the base waveform in simulation on a PC, and automated testing of the software using the same tests once it is ported to the target platform. This allows comprehensive integration verification and rapid regression testing.

Software Communications Architecture (SCA)
All of Etherstack’s commercial SDR waveforms are available in two forms: a native form for non-SCA radio platforms, and an SCA-ported form for SCA platforms. From Etherstack’s perspective, the SCA represents just another platform that it ports its already optimally portable native waveforms to by providing them with lightweight SCA adaptation code developed by the company.

Etherstack’s automated test environment is also fully compatible with the SCA, allowing testing of all SCA waveform resources across their SCA ports both on and off the hardware platform.

Off-The-Shelf Waveform Purchase
Sometimes Etherstack waveforms suit a client’s needs off-the-shelf. If this is the case, the client has an option of purchasing either a binary license with interface documentation, or a complete commercial SDR waveform solution that includes all documentation and source code. Testing and services are available with both options.

All-IP Core Networks for Reliable, Flexible Communication

To complement its protocol software, Etherstack has developed an all-IP Core Network suite based on the latest 3G soft switching and Radio over IP (RoIP) technologies.

This can be used to build flexible, powerful, future-proof end-to-end IP soft-switched radio networks that vary in scale from single site to nationwide – and that prioritise the reliability and security required for emergency services and defence.

It is suited to all floor-control based standards such as TETRA and military specifications and all software is compatible with Etherstack’s cryptographic solutions, allowing secure end-to-end encrypted communication. Software can be upgraded in the field, and is easily maintained and updated with new features as required.

Next Generation Networks
Etherstack’s network engineers are expert in wireless signalling and 3G commercial cellular soft switching. By basing their all-IP Core Network on strong software design methodologies, COTS industrial PCs and an inclusive and straightforward range of base station options, Etherstack hopes to vastly simplify the purchase, construction and scaling of radio infrastructure.

All-IP network for ALL protocols
Etherstack’s All-IP Core Network suits ALL floor-controlled air interface protocols, from APCO P25 and TETRA/TEDS to MPT1327, DMR/dPMR and military specifications. Furthermore, it supports the simultaneous, separate operation of these as well as cross-banding between them for interoperability. Public and private networks can also co-exist.

True COTS Packaging
Base stations aside, all of Etherstack’s network products are available either as a software package for deployment by a client, or ready deployed on carrier-grade industrial PC platforms such as embedded Linux servers or HP Telco carrier grade solutions. Because they are PC-based, many different deployment options are available, from carrier-grade to low cost, clustered or low power - allowing price and performance flexibility.

The only hardware required to build an entire fault-tolerant wide area network is basestations using Etherstack software and industrial PCs.

Network Deployment Flexibility
This also means that networks can be grown (both in capacity and geographically), reused and reorganized easily by adding, removing or moving industrial PCs, and reconfigured or upgraded merely by software update. Subscriber capacity is essentially unlimited, and can be extended via software reconfiguration.

Permanent, planned networks and field deployable networks for roll-out on an incident by incident basis are both equally suited to Etherstack technology.

Complete End-to-End Advanced Features
An all-Etherstack solution results in integration of the most advanced features offered by the standards from the hand portable to the base station through to the edges of the network. No voice transcoding is performed at any point in the network. This permits uncompromised end-to-end encryption, ensuring unconditional privacy for end users.

Standards Based
Etherstack uses open published interfaces wherever possible, so that third party products and alternative solutions can be incorporated anywhere in the system if required. All LMR products are compliant with the P25 ISSI/ CSSI and TETRA ISI.

Future Proof as Technology and Standards Evolve.

New features and updates can be supported by remote software upgrade.

Example – Alberta Utility P25 Network

In August 2008, Etherstack announced that its software defined radio technology would be used by a Canadian Utility building a new APCO P25 radio network.

The ATCO Electric Utility of Alberta, Canada, is building an 80-site APCO P25 radio network for use by ATCO's electricity linesmen. All of the software in the system – at the radio site and in the network – will be provided by Etherstack.

The bid team was led by Raytheon (NYSE:RTN), and involves the deployment of digital radio sites and an all-IP communications switching network based on APCO P25, the North American digital standard used for utility and public safety communications.

This system will use Etherstack’s wide-area, multi-protocol all-IP Core Network software application, which runs on industrial PCs, and a unique product called the P25 Channel Controller.

The P25 Channel Controller allows existing analogue repeaters to be upgraded to digital trunked P25 base stations with no degradation in function or features. It uses Etherstack software and is marketed and distributed by Raytheon.

Etherstack’s wide-area all-IP Core Network is capable of forging interoperability between public safety and civil communications networks that use different air interface protocols or operate at different radio frequencies.

Etherstack’s technology is unrivalled in the North American market because it enables existing analogue radio systems to operate as newer, more cellular-like digital APCO P25 systems by introducing just the software function required for P25 in a small device at legacy radio sites. CEO David Deacon explains “Our products allow high-quality existing equipment to be re-purposed rather than replaced. The cost savings in upgrading legacy radio systems using our technology across the United States and Canada could be measured in billions of dollars – money which can be well spent elsewhere in public safety and utility operations”.