How software-defined radio could revolutionize wireless

The Phi hopes to do for radio what Apple I did for computing—spark innovation.

Read the whole story

 

[Grieviant]

The analogy that the article attempts to support is extremely dubious in my opinion.

Communications at present is a much more mature field than was computing at the time the Apple I was being developed. It is and will always be a more narrow field than computing in terms of what a hobbyist can accomplish - you're moving data from point A to point B rather than writing a software program that could be geared towards just about anything. I'm not going to say that there's nothing left to discover - that would be way too strong - but there's been enough R&D done to the point that many good techniques and applications are already on the market (Wifi, Cellular, GPS). I just can't see a hobbyist coming in with some sweeping new idea that's going to turn heads, even ignoring the limitations on what and where you're allowed to broadcast without a license.

Spread spectrum and pulse compression have been around for decades. CDMA cellular is the obvious commercial example. Yes you can pretty much bury your signal in noise so that it won't disrupt other services operating on the same band, but the consequence is a proportional reduction in data rate by the spreading factor. In other words, have fun with your 10 kbps home brew wireless modem.

Whitespace and cognitive radio are incredibly annoying and poorly defined buzz words that so far have produced nothing aside from securing grant money for research. They envision a loosely controlled free for all that is guaranteed to produce a ton of headaches with the possibility of a more efficient spectrum usage. It's not very pessimistic to assume they'll promise everything and produce very little, just as MIMO has done, before researchers move on the next interesting idea.

Not to be overly disrespectful, but if you think that Ettus and Rondeau are going to be looked back on as some sort of great pioneers in popularizing communications as a hobby, you're sadly mistaken.

 

[Grieviant]

Be a proud geek. Learn your history. (Ars - Please educate them.)

These new SDR products are exactly like the first real computers coming out of the Altair club. It's exciting as hell. Revolutionary even.

Go ahead and ignore SDR, then see how you feel about it in 20 years.

PS: I'm a Linux hacker. I have zero Apple gear.

It's not so much that people ignore SDR, it's that radio implementations that use more DSP are a natural progression in communications. You can pretend it's a huge revolution if you want, but not many people who are actually knowledgeable about the field are going to swept away by that sort of ill-informed hype.

While Ars is a lot better than the myriad sites who do nothing but serve up shiny pictures of the infinite supply of new gadgets, if you're actually a communications geek there's no way in hell you'd be looking here to learn about the history of the field. Then again, as a self-professed "Linux hacker", I suspect your definition of geek is the much less stringent and recent one that anyone with a passing familiarity of mobile phones or computers qualifies for.

 

[Grieviant]

Of course SDR existed before this.
Computers also existed before the Altair and the Apple I.
In fact, the Altair sucked in comparison to 'real' computers of the day.
That's not the point.

For 30 years, computers were locked up in the ivory towers of the specialists, never in the hands of the unwashed masses. Judging by your response, I'd guess that you are yourself in such an ivory tower, and probably resent hackers like me intruding into your domain. I'm terribly sorry, but it's our turn now.

The revolution of the PC was that the power was transferred into the hands of the people, it was suddenly made accessible. Crackpots and dreamers and other miscreants. That changed EVERYTHING.

Look at the computers of 1974 and compare them to the computers of 1984. The difference was Hackers. Freedom to explore.
Not what your boss tells you to work on, but what you actually want to work on.

Now that we hackers have access to (relatively) affordable SDR, we can begin to explore the full ramifications. True invention and creativity can begin, unconstrained by the needs of the corporations that pay the bills.

Remember, Xerox had the Mouse and the GUI. It was a commercial flop. Did Xerox bring you the GUI? NO. Apple did.
There are dozens of great innovations stagnant in SDR right now, on the shelf, for exactly the same reason.

Hackers. Revolution. Why? A solid business plan? NO. Because it was cool.

Nobody really knew in 1976 what would happen with the Apple I, what its children would become. Hindsight is 20/20.
Thanks to hindsight, we now know what happens when hackers can finally get their hands on tech that has been hidden away for decades.

There are transition points in history. Game-changers, if you will. I believe this is just such a time. Not so great as the PC or the Web, perhaps, but truly significant.

You can disagree. That's fine. Time will tell.

True ingenuity and creativity can now begin? Corporate overlords keeping down the masses from their ivory towers by locking away tech? Game changing transition? Great innovations stagnating on the shelf?

Bahahah, what a bombastic load of shit you talk. By all means though, please inform us about these stagnating, game-changing innovations. The truth is, the vast majority of truly useful communications theory has been laid out in detail in the open literature. Researchers rarely even bother looking at patented work because there's not many serious developments there.

I really hope what you're trying to say is that hobbyists might come up with some as yet unforeseen uses for wireless, some sort of communications equivalent to a twitter or a facebook, rather than accomplishing sweeping changes in communications theory and practice. You need a strong background for the latter whereas you just need a (not so creative) idea that attracts lots of people for the former. These sorts of applications do nothing to advance the field and stand more as triumphs of marketing than anything else. I'm skeptical of anyone that tries to pass off that sort of rubbish as true geekery.