Multi-Mission MicroSDR

Toyon proposes to develop a low-power and compact reconfigurable radio specifically targeted to NASA mission needs. We envision the radio to be well matched to small satellites, terrestrial ground links, and autonomous vehicles. The design is based on the latest in field programmable gate array (FPGA) and general purpose processors (GPP). Typical software defined radios (SDRs) rely heavily on digital signal processors (DSPs) due to their ease of software development and ability to multitask well. Our emphasis will be on performing all baseband processing inside the FPGA due to its ability to offer over an order of magnitude increase in computational efficiency. While this approach does significantly decrease power consumption and associated platform size, it requires special considerations, particularly in terms of software development. As such, we will leverage Toyon's ongoing experience in computationally efficient waveform and associated software development using the latest in FPGA behavioral design tools. In addition, the architecture will stress logic component reuse between multiple waveforms to support rapid reconfiguration as well as reduce development time. Our RF front-end design will be a direct-conversion architecture to reduce size and provide frequency agility. The use of open-standards interfaces will provide for rapid systems integration.