Multimode Communication Protocols Enabling Reconfigurable Radios

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Aug 2005

This paper focuses on the realization and application of a generic protocol stack for reconfigurable wireless communication systems. This focus extends the field of software-defined radios which usually concentrates on the physical layer. The generic protocol stack comprises common protocol functionality and behavior which are extended through specific parts of the targeted radio access technology. This paper considers parameterizable modules of basic protocol functions residing in the data link layer of the ISO/OSI model. System-specific functionality of the protocol software is realized through adequate parameterization and composition of the generic modules. The generic protocol stack allows an efficient realization of reconfigurable protocol software and enables a completely reconfigurable wireless communication system. It is a first step from side-by-side realized, preinstalled modes in a terminal towards a dynamic reconfigurable anymode terminal. The presented modules of the generic protocol stack can also be regarded as a toolbox for the accelerated and cost-efficient development of future communication protocols.

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Multimode Communication Protocols Enabling Reconfigurable Radios

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking Multimode Communication Protocols Enabling Reconfigurable Radios Lars Berlemann 0 0 Chair of Communication Networks, RWTH Aachen University , Kopernikusstraße 16, D-52074 Aachen , Germany This paper focuses on the realization and application of a generic protocol stack for reconfigurable wireless communication systems. This focus extends the field of software-defined radios which usually concentrates on the physical layer. The generic protocol stack comprises common protocol functionality and behavior which are extended through specific parts of the targeted radio access technology. This paper considers parameterizable modules of basic protocol functions residing in the data link layer of the ISO/OSI model. System-specific functionality of the protocol software is realized through adequate parameterization and composition of the generic modules. The generic protocol stack allows an efficient realization of reconfigurable protocol software and enables a completely reconfigurable wireless communication system. It is a first step from side-by-side realized, preinstalled modes in a terminal towards a dynamic reconfigurable anymode terminal. The presented modules of the generic protocol stack can also be regarded as a toolbox for the accelerated and cost-efficient development of future communication protocols. and phrases; generic protocol stack; link layer functions; modular layer composition; reconfigurability; softwaredefined radio 1. INTRODUCTION The radio access of future ubiquitous communication networks will be released from the constrains of cellular wireless networks, as for instance universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), or wireless local area networks (WLANs). Wireless mobile broadband systems, providing a patchy coverage in densely populated urban areas, will play an important role. For details on such a fixed and planned relaybased radio network, see [ 1, 2 ]. The addressed future wireless network will have to combine several radio access technologies (RATs). Consequently, multimode capable terminals and base stations are required to enable the seamless interworking between these RATs. Multimode architectures can already be found in existing systems, like IEEE 802.16 [3] with different modes of the physical layer (PHY). Software-defined radios (SDRs) [ 4, 5 ] are a promising approach towards these multimode devices. The recent technological progress allows an extension of the key issues in research of SDRs from the signal processing of the physical layer on the complete communication chain used for wireless communication. The current research efforts are targeting at the realization of cognitive radios [ 4, 6, 7 ]: self-aware, frequency-agile radio systems that are able to identify unused radio spectrum. These cognitive radios require protocol reconfigurability to unfold their advantage of dynamic spectrum usage. Therefore, this paper extends the focus of SDRs on the protocol software used for reliable communication over the air. Especially, the data link layer (DLL) and network layer corresponding to the ISO/OSI reference model [8] are considered. This work supplements the research of the integrated project E2R [ 9 ] dealing with end-toend reconfigurability. The approach taken in this work aims at maximizing flexibility by providing a framework that is both general enough to accommodate a wide range of protocols, yet efficient enough to ensure competitive performance. (Classic) single protocol stack Data structures Protocol functions Protocol architecture Protocol management Protocol framework Similar goals have been formulated and followed in the software engineering domain. The x-Kernel [ 10 ] architecture composes a protocol graph of protocol components together into a system, but the approach does not permit dynamic reconfiguration of the protocol graph and does not specifically target wireless communications. The DARPA active networking program [ 11 ] tries to answer the key question of location (and nature) of programmability with the perspective to build a flexible distributed computing system, again with a focus on fixed networks. This paper consolidates previous publications [ 12, 13 ] and deduces summarizing conclusions. After introducing the idea of a generic protocol stack in Section 2, its application for protocol reconfigurability in the context of a multimode capable protocol architecture is outlined thereafter. The realization of a generic protocol stack, based on fundamental protocol functions that can be parameterized, is summarized in Section 3. The composition of specific protocol layers of adequately parameterized modules is shown in Section 4. Section 5 introduces the composition of system-specific layers at the example of the UMTS radio link control (RLC) layer, the transmission control protocol (TCP), and the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) layer, which differ in their develo (...truncated)


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Lars Berlemann, Ralf Pabst, Bernhard Walke. Multimode Communication Protocols Enabling Reconfigurable Radios, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2005, pp. 242961, Volume 2005, Issue 3, DOI: 10.1155/WCN.2005.390