SDR FORUM LAUNCHES TASK GROUP ON TRANSCEIVER SUBSYSTEM INTERFACES; INVITES ORGANIZATIONS WORLDWIDE TO PARTICIPATE

DENVER, CO, Dec. 5, 2007 -- The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum, (www.sdrforum.org), a nonprofit international industry association supporting the advancement of reconfigurable wireless technology, today announced the launch of a worldwide task group on transceiver subsystem interfaces (TSI). Created under the umbrella of the SDR Forum Technical Committee, the new task group will be dedicated to facilitating industry convergence on open specifications supporting the interface between the radio frequency (RF) front end and baseband processing/modem subsystems in reconfigurable radio products.

The TSI task group's initial objective will be to expand upon the work done by the European End-to-End Reconfigurability program and other related efforts to define standard transceiver application programming interfaces (API) for use by radio equipment manufacturers in the commercial, public safety and defense domains. These APIs will act as an abstraction layer for the transceiver hardware - facilitating the insertion of new or updated physical-layer waveform applications and air interface standards while the radio is in operation and, at the same time, improving the portability of these applications and standards from radio to radio.

"What's most significant is that this activity will help to establish an ecosystem of vendors providing interoperable hardware and software radio technologies," said Lee Pucker, CEO of the SDR Forum. "This will ultimately reduce the cost of development, cost of production and cost of operation of software defined and cognitive radios, as well as speeding time to market or time to deployment."

As a part of this effort, the TSI task group will - to ensure support - evaluate the proposed transceiver API against the various lower-level transceiver interface specifications and standards that have been developed for the commercial and defense wireless markets over the past several years. This evaluation will include the Reference Point 3 specification developed under the OBSAI (Open Base Station Architecture Initiative), the DigRF Interface specification under development by the MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) Alliance, the VITA Radio Transport draft standard developed by the VITA Standards Organization as VITA 49, and the CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface). One important outcome of this activity will be the revised submission of the transceiver API in response to the OMG's (Object Management Group) Digital IF request-for-proposal for additional follow-on standardization.

The new TSI task group will formally launch at the SDR Forum's next general meeting, January 14-17, 2008, in Tampa, Fla. Information on this meeting can be found at www.sdrforum.org/pages/whatsNew/whatsNewDetails.asp?id=408&news_cat=Forum+Meetings. Activities will include a review of the proposed charter for approval by the task group and finalization of its 2008 work plan. The goal is to complete initial work on the API in time for finalization balloting at the Forum's September general meeting. Organizations interested in participating in the TSI task group should email Lee Pucker at Lee.Pucker@SDRForum.org.

About the SDR Forum

Established in 1996, the SDR Forum is a nonprofit international industry association dedicated to supporting the development and deployment of software defined radio systems that enable flexible and adaptable architectures in advanced wireless systems. Currently numbering some 100 organizations, the Forum's membership spans commercial, defense and civil government organizations, including wireless service providers, network operators, component and equipment manufacturers, hardware and software developers, regulatory agencies, and academia from Asia, Europe, and North America. The SDR Forum's administrative office is headquartered in Denver.

Editorial Contacts

Lee Pucker, SDR Forum, 604-828-9846, Lee.Pucker@SDRForum.org or
Neal Leavitt, Leavitt Communications, 760-639-2900 or 760-212-9112, neal@leavcom.com

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