bienvenido a t-cert
The need to send data or voice wirelessly between people, between machines (M2M, Machine to Machine) or between people and machines (HMC, Human-Machine Communication), has led to the development of multiple systems, technologies and protocols, both Inside and outside industrial environments, the main ones being those described in the study on 'Cybersecurity in Wireless Communications in Industrial Environments'.
Each technology and protocol has its own characteristics and requires a system with specific hardware or software in order to operate. This is no longer the case when it comes to SDR (Software Defined Radio), Software Radio or RDI (Radioelectric system determined by computer programs), according to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union).
An SDR can be defined, according to the Wireless Innovation Forum, in collaboration with the IEEE, as "a radio in which some or all of the physical layer functions are defined by software." In other words, that an SDR is a reprogrammable or reconfigurable radio, in which the same hardware can perform different operations by modifying its configuration through software or firmware.
Therefore, an SDR is not a radio, neither analog, nor digital. The differences are that an analog radio does not work with digital signals in any of its stages and additionally, like a digital radio in this case, it requires that its factory hardware be replaced by a different one to be able to perform operations other than the preset ones.
The communication modes that SDR models can offer are:
Simplex, if the SDR can only act as a receiver or transmitter, without the possibility of switching. Half-duplex, when the SDR can send or receive signals, but not at the same time. Full-duplex, if transmission and reception can be done at the same time. On the other hand, despite the different architectures (hardware or software) that can be found in the market, all of them share their own sequence of stages in the operation of an SDR, which corresponds, in signal reception mode, to the following:
Software Defined Radio stands out for being a flexible system at the hardware level, since it offers the possibility of operating with different wireless communication technologies without the need to acquire specific equipment for each of them, and at the software level, since it Different types of software can be associated, whether they are free or proprietary, as well as free or paid.
Likewise, it turns out to be an economical system, not only due to its flexibility, but also due to the low cost of some models, such as the R820T2 (R860 soon) + RTL2832U dongles, which makes the SDR accessible to anyone. In addition, the possibility of updating remotely and quickly, to correct errors or vary parameters, is a key aspect in matters of security, maintenance and equipment availability.
The objective pursued with the SDR is for a user to establish communication when required, with whoever needs it and according to the protocol established for that communication. Currently, telecommunications companies are beginning to implement SDR technology and there is a large community dedicated to developing new applications, such as the RTL-SDR.COM forum where new content is frequently published.
.jpg){kind=small}