Wind River software used in Selex Communications' SDR project

Citation

(2007), "Wind River software used in Selex Communications' SDR project", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779daf.003

Wind River software used in Selex Communications' SDR project

Wind River software used in Selex Communications' SDR project

Research and development in software defined radio (SDR) technologies in the military field is aimed at covering all operational needs of radio transmission with a limited number of models, created adopting a new common architecture, called Software Communications Architecture (SCA).

Employing the SCA architecture was a winning approach, to the point that different “SCA-based” products are already available on the market for military and civilian use. In Italy, the only company operating in the military communications market is Selex Communications – formerly Selenia Communications – which has developed its SDR design and prototype using Wind River software.

A brief history of SDR

The SDR project was initiated from a need to solve communication problems caused by the environment and by the lack of existing network infrastructure, employing a reduced number of transceiver devices. A new approach was investigated, to define radio devices that could be re-configured in such a way as to be able to respond to any transmission requirements, without having to deploy – prior to each mission – a great number of transceivers or terminals, each with limited service capabilities and frequency or distance range.

In the first phase of definition of the SCA architecture the base interface framework was defined. Through this framework's components all the radio's functionalities can be realised. An architecture was defined that allows the development of an application software (waveform) and its integration in the framework, independently of the HW platform adopted.

The advantages of SDR

This approach has allowed to respond to the project's objectives with a limited number of radio device models, one for each category (naval, avionic and terrestrial).

This way, a military unit that is operating on a specific terrain can choose the models to deploy (for example, small radio units for short- range transmissions and a single longer- range device acting as a collector). This is possible as all the models share the option of re-configuring so that they can adapt to the more disparate networking requirements. The same concept is being applied to the civil sector, and the Homeland Security, thanks to the option of creating wireless networks in very short timeframes, when conditions do not allow the use of existing wired or wireless infrastructures (for example, in the case of rescue activities following natural disasters).

The role of Selex Comms in SDR

Selex Comms started looking into SDR at the beginning of 2000, participating in different forums and workshops; it is also a member of the SDR Forum (www.sdrforum.org) which, through its technical and commercial work groups gathers the greatest number of companies and organisations both in the civilian and military sectors.

After an initial phase of evaluation, training ad feasibility studies, Selex Comms concentrated on the development of a first prototype for naval platforms or fixed land stations. The prototype, studied for defense requirements, may generate products for civilian use in the future. The project was managed by Fabrizio Vergari, senior engineer at Selex Comms, and gave a clear demonstration of the company's ability to develop SDR products.

As required by the SCA architecture of this project, a real time operative system (RTOS) was used for the first time in a radio device, not just for the operator-device interface services, but also to manage the entire signal management flow.

A further innovation in an embedded system was the key use of the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker) middleware to manage the exchange of messages between software components and the base framework. The middleware acts as a “logic bus” through which components are connected thanks to the common structure of the interfaces, regardless of the development language with which the interfaces and other components are implemented. To use an easily understood analogy, it's like a “postman” who delivers different messages and is able to do so by simply knowing the “recipient's” identification reference, without the “sender” knowing the exact physical location (location transparency).

For this to be possible the presence of common, applied specifics-defined, standard software interfaces is necessary.

One of the advantages of this approach is that it allows to save software development time. Moving from one version of a product to another, a saving of at least 60 per cent of the platform software development time can be achieved.

The role of the OS

The operating system is employed to answer the needs of the software components, activating the device hardware's operating functions. It's, therefore, necessary that the operating system's functions are executed quickly with a certain processor with clearly defined and determined latency times, as well as short ones.

On the basis of the above considerations, and others too, Selex Comms selected the Wind River VxWorks operating system. Another key factor in the choice was support.

As Fabrizio Vegari says: “Developers of these products have to count on the maximum level of support, not only to save time and costs, but also to be certain that they are developing a reliable product.”

Selex Comms has concluded the development of the demo prototype and has positively completed the testing phase of the platform, as well as the integration of waveforms realised according to SCA version 3.0 specifics. Thanks to this experience, Selex Comms developed a solid experience base in the SCA field, which they are currently applying to their SDR product development roadmap.

Key differentiators for Wind River

In addition to the excellent performance of Wind River products and the support offered, a key factor was the partnership with Motorola (specifically the combination of this company's boards with the VxWorks RTOS). This partnership of many years is a further guarantee of success.

Selex Comms designers much appreciated the suggestions made by Wind River support specialists during the development phase, as these were not strictly limited to the use of the OS, but also covered multi-processing aspects in embedded systems.

The agreement with Finmeccanica

Within the Finmeccanica Industrial Group, Selex distributes the user license of a common packet that allows the distribution of the product to other sites and use it across other companies of the Group. This opportunity is possible thanks to Wind River's DSO strategic vision, a vision that applies perfectly to Finmeccanica's requirements.

Following a previous agreement. Wind River operates as an exclusive supplier of software solutions for the entire Finmeccanica Group, which includes leading companies in the aerospace and defence and manufacturing industries in Europe. Finmeccanica is among the Italian industrial groups that make substantial research investments in these sectors.

Details available from: Wind River, E-mail: inquires@windriver.com; web site: www.windriver.com