Towards Rapid Waveform Design and Deployment via Modular Signal Processing Frameworks

Recent popularity of agile radio frequency transceivers, software defined radios, and large Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices presents both opportunities and challenges in the tactical communications domain. Technology advances enable more complex communications systems, but also allow increasingly sophisticated threats to existing systems at faster rates. Traditional, stove-piped, special-purpose tactical waveform development techniques are not suited for this new environment, creating a clear need for rapid waveform design and deployment practices. The maturation of modular, evolvable design frameworks offers the flexibility to refresh system capabilities without requiring entire system overhauls. GNU Radio and Common-modern Hardware Integrated Library (CHlL) are two such frameworks that are intended for General Purpose Processor (GPP) and FPGA/ASIC deployment, respectively. In this paper, we outline an integrated approach for prototyping a surrogate tactical waveform using both the CHlL and GNU Radio frameworks, provide benchmarking results to highlight the implementation's configurability, and comment on lessons learned while interfacing both frameworks together.