Paper ID #7243

Introducing Software Dened Radio into Undergraduate Wireless Engineering Curriculum through a Hands-on Approach
Prof. Shiwen Mao, Auburn University Dr. Shiwen Mao received a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 2004. Currently, he is the McWane Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. Dr. Maos research interests include performance analysis, optimization, and algorithms for wireless networks. He was awarded the McWane Endowed Professorship in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University in 2012. He received Auburn Alumni Council Research Awards for ExcellenceJunior Award and two Auburn Author Awards in 2011. He received NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2010. He is a co-recipient of the 2004 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize in the Field of Communications Systems and the Best Paper Runner-up Award of QShine 2008. He is on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks Journal, Wiley International Journal of Communication Systems, and ICST Transactions on Mobile Communications and Applications. Mr. Yingsong Huang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University Yingsong Huang received the M.S. degrees in Control Theory and Control Engineering and the B.S. in Automation, both from Chongqing University at Chongqing, China. Since 2007, he has been pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL. His research interests include modeling, control and optimization in computer networks and multimedia communication. Dr. Yihan Li, Auburn University Dr. Yihan Li received her B.E. and M.E. degrees from Tsinghua University at Beijing, P.R. China in Electrical Engineering in 1993 and 1997, respectively. She also received her M.S. in System Engineering in 2000 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2004 from Polytechnic University (now Polytechnic Institute of New York University) at Brooklyn, NY, in 2000. Currently, she is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. She was a research scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Polytechnic University from 2004 to 2006, and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University from 2006 to 2009. Dr. Lis research interests include scheduling in-wired and wireless networks, wireless ad hoc networks, and high-speed packet switching. She is a member of Tau Beta Pi. Prof. Prathima Agrawal, Auburn University Dr. Prathima Agrawal is the Sam Ginn Distinguished professor of Electrical Engineering and the director of the Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center at Auburn University. Before arriving at Auburn University in 2003, from 1978 to 1998, she worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill, NJ in various capacities. There she created and became the head of the new Networked Computing Research Department. From 1998 to 2003, she was assistant vice president of the Internet Architecture Research Laboratory and executive director of the Networking research department at Bellcore (Telcordia), at Morristown, NJ. Dr. Agrawal is widely published in the elds of mobile computing, computer architecture and VLSI design. She holds 51 US patents. She is a fellow of IEEE. Dr. Agrawal received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, India. She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, CA.

c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013

Paper ID #7243

Prof. Jitendra K Tugnait, Auburn University Jitendra Tugnait received the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India in 1971; the M.S. and the E.E. degrees from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY; and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois-UrbanaChampaign in 1973, 1974, and 1978, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1978 to 1982, he was an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, IA. Tugnait was with the Long Range Research Division of the Exxon Production Research Company at Houston, TX, from June 1982 to Sept. 1989. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University in Auburn, AL, in September 1989 as a professor. He currently holds the title of James B. Davis Professor. His current research interests are in statistical signal processing, wireless and wireline digital communications, cognitive radio, multiple sensor multiple target tracking and stochastic systems analysis. Dr. Tugnait is a past associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. He is currently an associate editor and an area editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and a Senior Editor of IEEE Wireless Communications Letters.

c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013

Introducing Software Defined Radio into Undergraduate Wireless Engineering Curriculum through a Hands-on Approach
Shiwen Mao1, Yingsong Huang2, Yihan Li3, Prathima Agrawal4, Jitendra Tugnait5

Abstract A software defined radio (SDR) is a modern radio communication system that can be reconfigured on-the-fly. In this paper we describe a pro!ect on introducing SDR to the "achelor of #ireless $ngineering ("#$) curriculum at Auburn %ni&ersity. 'ur efforts consist of three intertwined thrusts( (i) #e offer well-defined SDR senior design pro!ects as well as research pro!ects for students supported by the )S* Research $+perience for %ndergraduate (R$%) program, (ii) #e also use SDRrelated e+periments as term pro!ects to enhance the e+isting wireless engineering courses at Auburn, (iii) #e are de&eloping an SDR laboratory course based on the e+perience and feedbac- from the SDR pro!ects and will test-offer the lab course in the near future.
Keywords: Software defined radio situated learning theory undergraduate laboratory course wireless communications and networ-ing wireless engineering.

I !R"DUC!I"
.he concept /Software Defined Radio0 (SDR) was coined by 1oseph 2itola in 34453. SDR is an emerging technology that is profoundly changing radio system engineering5. In traditional wireless communications different wireless de&ices cannot communicate with each other due to their different hardwired radio systems. In the SDR paradigm many radio system components are implemented in software and can be reconfigured on-the-fly thus allowing a single piece of hardware for multi-standard multi-band and multi-functional wireless systems. Such a paradigm change has far-reaching impact on the e&olution of future wireless communications and networ-ing systems. Recently considerable ad&ances ha&e been made in SDR research and de&elopment. In addition to better understandings and theory a notable ad&ance is the a&ailability of programmable wireless platforms that allow researchers to create software radios such as $ttus Research 6678s %ni&ersal Software Radio 9eripheral (%SR9) (ac:uired by )ational Instruments 7orporation in *eb. 5;3;) Rice %ni&ersity8s #ireless 'pen-Access Research 9latform (#AR9) and other commercial platforms.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 200 Broun Hall, Auburn University, Auburn A !"#$%&'201, smao(ieee)org
2 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 200 Broun Hall, Auburn University, Auburn A !"#$%&'201, y*+0002(tigermail)auburn)edu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 200 Broun Hall, Auburn University, Auburn A !"#$%&'201, yli(auburn)edu
$ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 200 Broun Hall, Auburn University, Auburn A !"#$%&'201, agra,pr(auburn)edu ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 200 Broun Hall, Auburn University, Auburn A !"#$%&'201, tugna-.(eng)auburn)edu

Although there is a compelling need for SDR e+pertise in the wireless industry SDR has been regarded as a highly ad&anced topic and to the best of our -nowledge only offered as graduate le&el courses at a few schools5 <. 2oti&ated by this need we propose to introduce SDR into the undergraduate wireless engineering curriculum with a hands-on approach. .he e+isting programmable wireless platforms are the enablers for the proposed hands-on approach. In additional to allowing create software radios on-the-fly the platforms also pro&ide full access to the physical (9=>) and medium access control (2A7) layers which was not possible pre&iously. .herefore what can only be studied through abstract theory and computer simulations are now becoming tangible and reconfigurable to students. Such full access to the entire protocol stac- can potentially transform the traditional lecture-based wireless engineering education. .he specific ob!ecti&es of this pro!ect are as follows. .o de&elop wireless communications e+periments and pro!ects by e+ploiting the full access to the 9=> and 2A7 as enabled by the programmable wireless platforms. .o integrate the SDR e+periments and pro!ects with traditional wireless communications courses to enhance teaching and student learning. .o de&elop a new SDR laboratory course for !unior and senior le&el wireless engineering students. .he ob!ecti&e is to e+pose undergraduate students to the ad&anced SDR technology with a hands-on approach and to train the future wireless wor-force with the much needed SDR e+pertise. .he proposed pro!ect will enhance student learning and impro&e the :uality of our undergraduate education specifically enhancing Auburn %ni&ersity8s A"$.-accredited "achelor of #ireless $ngineering ("#$) program first-of-its--ind in the nation. .he SDR lab course will prepare our students for the compelling need of SDR e+pertise from the wireless and defense industry. #ell defined components from the lab e+periments will also be used for demonstration final pro!ects and senior design pro!ects. .he hands-on approach has the potential of transforming traditional classroom-based wireless engineering education. In the reminder of this paper we first introduce the preliminaries of SDR and its ad&antages for undergraduate wireless engineering education. #e then report our e+perience with the SDR pro!ects and the de&elopment of the SDR lab course. .his paper is concluded with a discussion of future wor-.

#AC$%R"U D A D &"!I'A!I"
Software Defined Radio (SDR) An SDR is a radio communication system where components that ha&e typically been implemented in hardware such as mi+ers filters amplifiers modulators demodulators and detectors are instead implemented in software. As a result such radios can pro&ide software control of a &ariety of modulation techni:ues wideband or narrowband operations security mechanisms and wa&eform re:uirements of current and e&ol&ing wireless standards o&er a broad fre:uency range3 5. An ideal SDR is illustrated in *ig. 3. In the ideal SDR the antenna connects directly to the 6ow )oise Amplifier (6)A) and analog-to-digital con&erter (AD7) for the reception path or the 9ower Amplifier (9A) and digital-to-analog con&erter (DA7) for the transmission path. .he

processor handles all radio functions such as filtering up?downcon&ersion modulation and demodulation and the digital baseband. .his is a paradigm change from traditional radio engineering. As illustrated in *ig. 5 in order to support four different standards (i.e. %2.S 7D2A #i-*i and "luetooth) a hardware radio approach needs to incorporate four chipsets one for each of the standards. #ith SDR the standards are implemented in software to be loaded and e+ecuted in a common hardware platform consisting of *9@A and DS9 chips. If there is a need to support a new standard one simply needs to load the code which implements the new protocol into the hardware platform and e+ecute the code there.

*ig. 3 Diagram of an ideal SDR.

Such an SDR paradigm has many ad&antages. As discussed now a single piece of hardware can support multi-standard multi-band and multi-functional wireless systems. Di&erse needs for different systems can now be satisfied with a single generic hardware thus achie&ing great interoperability among &arious wireless networ-s. %pgrading a wireless system with add-on functionalities is reduced to downloading a new dri&er. 9rototyping new radio technology is greatly simplified and time-to-mar-et can be significantly reduced.

*ig. 5 7omparison of SDR with traditional hardware radios. %2.S( uni&ersal mobile telecommunications system, 7D2A( code di&ision multiple access, #i-*i( wireless fidelity, *$2( front end module, .A7BR( transcei&er, ""( baseband, R*I7( radio fre:uency integrated circuits, So7( system on chip.

.he potential of SDR is ma+imiCed when combined with spectrum sensing and the so-called cogniti&e engineD. .he combination termed cogniti&e radio (7R) is a fre:uency-agile wireless communication de&ice that enables dynamic spectrum accessE F. 7R capitaliCes on recent

ad&ances in spectrum regulation policy that allow share licensed bands with unlicensed usersG. .he idea of dynamic spectrum access was largely moti&ated by *778s finding of serious underutiliCation of allocated spectrumH which is in drastic contrast with the common belief of spectrum depletion. Such discrepancy calls for an o&erhaul of the spectrum regulation policy. A 7R can sense the spectrum to detect unused fre:uency bands as well as its radio en&ironment and ma-e decisions on how to reconfigure the SDR to achie&e impro&ed performance. .he SDR radio module is capable of reconfiguring R* and can be programmed to tune to a wide spectrum range and operate on any fre:uency bands within the range. 7R has attracted tremendous interest from industry go&ernment and academia ali-e. .he SDR?7R concept is changing the way how wireless systems are designed and dri&ing the ne+t generation of radio de&ices and wireless standards to enable a &ariety of new applications. SDR for Undergraduate Curriculum In the con&entional system partition for wireless protocol implementation (e.g. #i-*i) R* and baseband processing are mainly handled by the H;5.33 chipset while the 2A7 protocol is mostly implemented in the firmware as microcode stored in onboard memory and e+ecuted at a micro-controller on the card4. .he dri&er in the operating system -ernel manages the networinterface card and pro&ides an interface for upper layer applications. Se&eral open-source 6inu+ dri&ers are a&ailable such as 2ad#i*i and =ostA9. "y e+tending these de&ice dri&ers we can modify a certain part of the 2A7 layer and to some e+tent de&elop new 2A7 protocols. =owe&er the 9=> is generally hardwired and not accessible for de&elopers. It is &ery hard and costly to test a new 9=> technology. As a result most researchers resort to simulation to &alidate their ideas. #ith the SDR platforms both the 2A7 and 9=> layers are now accessible. .esting and prototyping new 2A7?9=> ideas boil down to writing software codes and e+ecuting the code on the platform. .his opens a new dimension of opportunities for teaching wireless courses with a hands-on approach which can ma-e abstract theory tangible and moti&ating student learning by building real wor-ing wireless systems. SDR has a broad spectrum of applications for both military and ci&ilian wireless networ-s many of which may re:uire supporting a wide &ariety of e&ol&ing wireless protocols in real time. SDR represents a modern approach to radio engineering and will certainly ha&e significant impacts in our society. #e belie&e there is a compelling need to e+pose our undergraduate students to this important technology. .he benefit will be considerable( (i) we will train a new generation of wireless engineers with the ad&anced SDR e+pertise to meet the demand from both industry and go&ernment (e.g. regulation and military) and (ii) we can also fully e+ploit the high potential of the SDR systems such as the reconfigurability and &isualiCation capability for enhancing traditional wireless engineering courses. #e belie&e a hands-on approach would be a perfect match for teaching SDR. 'ne of the indispensable essential s-ills an electrical engineer should gain from his?her college education is the hands-on e+perience on practical engineering systems. =owe&er through our own teaching e+perience we found that the students are in lac- of such -ind of e+perience by a considerable measure. .his lac- of e+perience is not only seriously !eopardiCing the career prospects of the students but also hurting the recruitment and retention of students in the department as well. In an effort to ma-e up for this shortfall the proposed lab course will pro&ide students with the necessary e:uipment en&ironment and instructions to de&elop their much-needed practical s-ills.

.he proposed approach is also moti&ated by the Situated 6earning .heory3; 33 the core of which is /learning by doing.0 .he hands-on approach has many ad&antages and will help to enhance the e+isting wireless engineering courses. It has been pro&en through educational research that students will ha&e a &i&id and lasting understanding of what they do much more than what they only hear or see. #or-ing on a pro!ect will sharpen a student8s creati&e s-ills. 9erse&ering through a pro!ect and seeing it to completion gi&e them a great sense of accomplishment. 6ast but not least students will wor- together on some pro!ects which help to de&elop their teambuilding and teamwor- s-ills important :ualities for their future career de&elopment and success.

SDR *R"+EC!S
SDR Senior Design *ro,ect In the Spring 5;3; semester we sponsored a senior design pro!ect based on SDR. .he senior design team consists of eight students from our wireless engineering electrical engineering computer engineering and software engineering programs. .he students are di&ided into three groups each focusing on the R* design embedded system design and software design aspects of the SDR system respecti&ely. .he R* design team built and tested an antenna that recei&es in the *2 radio 2unicipal Radio and broadcast .B bands. .he embedded system team designed an internal power supply for %SR93?%SR95 and an 67D front panel for configuration and information display. .he software team de&eloped the @raphical %ser Interface (@%I) for %SR9 control. .he integrated system was demonstrated at the senior design fair in 2ay 5;3; to successfully recei&e from se&eral *2 radio stations. In fact this pro!ect is more challenging than the *2 radio lab that will be described in the ne+t Section since it also in&ol&es antenna design and embedded system design. .he team completed the pro!ect independently and the demonstration at the 2ay 5;3; senior design fair was :uite successful. .his senior design pro!ect clearly tested the feasibility of the proposed SDR lab and other SDR-related curriculum enhancements for undergraduate students. SDR !erm *ro,ects for E-EC ./001Communication S2stems In addition to e+posing undergraduate students to the modern radio engineering approach the proposed SDR e+periments can also be used to enhance our e+isting wireless engineering courses. *or this purpose components of the SDR lab (to be introduced in the ne+t section) can be adopted for classroom demos final pro!ects and senior design pro!ects. "ased on the proposed SDR lab the wireless engineering-related courses offered in our department can be enhanced. In the Summer 5;35 and *all 5;35 semesters we offered SDR-based term pro!ects to students in the $6$7 <D;;I7ommunication Systems classes. .his is an introductory course in the area of communications. It co&ers mainly the traditional analog communication techni:ues such as amplitude modulation (A2) fre:uency modulation (*2) and phase modulation (92) and digital communication techni:ues such as sampling and digitiCing analogue signals baseband transmissions and modulated transmissions. .he course can be &ery theoretical since a thorough understanding of these systems re:uires familiarity with *ourier analysis probability and stochastic processes. Students need to be &ery proficient with the con&ersion between time- and

fre:uency-domain representations of signals. #hen tal-ing about the fre:uency spectra of all the different modulated signals the most fre:uently as-ed :uestion by the students is how the abstract mathematical e:uations loo- li-e in real life. In addition the students ha&e a strong curiosity on how the modulation?demodulation process wor-s in a real system. .o address this problem optional 2A.6A" e+ercises were typically assigned to students to compute and plot &arious signals. Although the 2A.6A" e+ercises are helpful an important component the course is lac-ing is an accompanying lab course through which students can systematically obtain hands-on e+perience and in-depth understanding of the theory. .o ma-e up for this shortfall the course was enhanced to incorporate se&eral pro!ects in&ol&ing analysis and construction of modulators?demodulators. %pon completion of these pro!ects students could gain deep understanding of practical communication systems and see for themsel&es how the signals are modulated and demodulated and what happens in the time and fre:uency domain at different stages of the process. #ith the pro!ects students could also be able to build &arious components of a digital communication system obser&e the signal wa&eforms and constellations at different stages and study the effect of noise and interference on the wa&eforms and the o&erall system performance. .hrough these pro!ects students could gain first-hand -nowledge and practical s-ills on analog and digital communication systems. 7onse:uently their understanding of the theory and practice of telecommunications would also be greatly enhanced. .he SDR term pro!ects are based on the 'pen Source Software 7ommunications Architecture (S7A) Implementation for $mbedded-Systems ('SSI$) -it de&eloped at Birginia .ech (a&ailable at( http(??ossie.wireless.&t.edu?). S7A is promoted for commercial use by the SDR *orum. It addresses important tas-s including wa&eform ac:uisition interoperability operation and deployment on 7R de&ices A9I and common component information while the S7A middleware ma-es an abstraction of the underlying hardware from interoperable and programmable wa&eforms. 'SSI$ is one of the first open source 7JJ implementations of the S7A 7ore *ramewor- (7*). .he Birginia .ech team has offered a set of 'SSI$ e+periments at the 'SSI$ website. In particular we find the first four 'SSI$ labs :uite suitable for the term pro!ects. *irst the co&erage and le&els of these labs are good match for the undergraduate course. Second these labs are based on computer simulations, there is no need for the use of an SDR de&ice (such as a %SR9). .he latter is important since students can thus wor- on their own computer without needing to go to a laboratory to try the e+periments. #e too- a two-step approach to incorporating the 'SSI$ pro!ects with the 7ommunication Systems course. *irst we hired two undergraduate students using funds from the )S* R$% program to try out the four 'SSI$ labs in *all 5;33. .he students tested the e+periments independently and fine-tuned the contents and instructions of the labs to ma-e them better suitable for our students. Second we offer the four labs as term pro!ects to the Summer 5;35 and *all 5;35 7ommunication System classes. After an introduction and demo lecture students were pro&ided with the re&ised lab instructions and a DBDR'2 which is self-contained with 'SSI$ and other dependent software. Students were re:uired to complete the four 'SSI$ labs during the semester with help from e+perienced graduate students and to complete a sur&ey to pro&ide feedbac- by the end of the semester. Assessment and Student 3eedbac4

#e employed the Student Assessment of 6earning @ains (SA6@) facility at http(??www.salgsite.org to collect feedbac- from students which is an on-line sur&ey that measures student perceptions of their learning gains due to any components within a course. #e modified the standard template pro&ided at SA6@ to match the uni:ue features of the SDR term pro!ects and had our students ta-e the sur&ey by the end of the semesters. #hen the data was returned we analyCed the raw data to re&eal the effecti&eness of our effort and to identify potential problems for further impro&ement. .he anonymous sur&ey consists of 3; sets of :uestions (totally F; :uestions in addition to comments). #e find the SDR term pro!ects &ery well recei&ed by the students. Some e+ample student comments are gi&en below( /The project has really helped me in the understanding because it provided me with real hands-on experience.0 /The hands-on approach really gave the true picture of the project. It has taught me how to get a picture of whatever I am learning.0 /Things that used to be abstract to me can now be felt real or practical.0 Selected student sur&ey scores for the effecti&eness of the SDR term pro!ects from the *all 5;35 $6$7 <D;;;I7ommunication Systems class are plotted in *ig. <. .he corresponding :uestions are( As a result of your wor in this project! what gains did you ma e in your understanding of each of the following" #$.$% The main concepts explored in this class. #$.&% The relationships between the main concepts. #$.'% The following concept that has been explored in this class: (odulation of analog signals. #$.)% The following concept that has been explored in this class: Transform an analog signal to digital. #$.*% The following concept that has been explored in this class: Transmission of digital signals. #$.+% ,ow ideas from this class related to ideas encountered in other classes within this subject area. #$.-% ,ow ideas from this class relate to ideas encountered in classes outside of this subject area. #$..% ,ow studying this subject area helps people address real world issues. .he optional scores for each problem are( 3( no gains, 5( a little gain, <( moderate gain, D( good gain, E( great gain. .he a&erage score for the <5 students in the class are plotted in *ig. <. It can be seen that the a&erage scores are all between < and D (i.e. moderate to good gain). .he highest a&erage score is for Kuestion 3.3 which is D.;. .he students felt that the 'SSI$ labs pro&ided good gain for them to understand the main concepts co&ered in this course. .he lowest a&erage score is for Kuestion 3.H which is <.E4. .hus it would be helpful to relate the course material to

more real world issues in future classes. *rom the sur&ey we find the SDR term pro!ects did help to enhance classroom teaching and student learning of the abstract communications theory.
E D.E D A&erage Score <.E < 5.E 5 3.E 3 K3.3 K3.5 K3.< K3.D K3.E K3.F Sur&ey Kuestions K3.G K3.H

*ig. < Selected student sur&ey statistics about the effecti&eness of the SDR term pro!ects from the *all 5;35 $6$7<D;;I7ommunication Systems class.

SDR -A#"RA!"R5 C"URSE DE'E-"*&E !

.he SDR pro!ects offered in our undergraduate classes pro&ide &aluable e+perience and test the feasibility of introducing SDR into our undergraduate wireless engineering curriculum. $ncouraged by the progress made and positi&e feedbac- from students we plan to de&elop an SDR laboratory course for undergraduate students. SDR *latform *or the SDR lab course we plan to use both simulations (as in the four 'SSI$ labs we offered) and hardware e+periments using a wireless programmable platform. Se&eral SDR de&elopment platforms are a&ailable35. Such platforms pro&ide the fle+ibility of modifying and optimiCing the 9=> layer and integration with the 2A7 and higher layers where *9@As are used for handling the high data rates from the analog-to-digital (A?D) and digital-to-analog (D?A) con&erters and for symbol rate processing. After e&aluating &arious options we decide to use %SR9 and @)% Radio for the SDR e+periments. %SR9 is a popular SDR platform from $ttus (see *ig. D). @)% Radio is an opensource software tool-it for building software radios generally independent of the hardware. 9rogramming with @)% Radio?%SR9 is relati&ely easy and the relati&ely lower price ma-es it suitable for classroom use. .he open-source software also reduces the cost of the lab and ma-es it easier for inter-operability and adoption at other uni&ersities once this lab is fully de&eloped. SDR -ab Course Structure .here are already some well-designed lab e+periments a&ailable for both 'SSI$ (from Birginia .ech) and #AR9 (from Rice %ni&ersity) which were &ery helpful to us in constructing our own SDR lab course. .he SDR lab will co&er basic communications technologies and typical wireless networ-s consisting of the following components( (i) preliminaries and introduction to SDR 6inu+ @)% Radio and %SR9, (ii) analogy communication modulation and systems (iii) digital

communication systems (i&) wireless networ- systems including wireless local area networ-s (#6A)) and cellular networ-s.

*ig. D .he %SR9 -it connected to a laptop computer which is configured to operate as a wireless node3< 3D.

#e ha&e de&eloped the lab instructions and set up the lab and will test offer it in Spring 5;3< to a group of si+ students as $6$7 D4G;ISpecial .opics in $lectrical $ngineering( Software Defined Radio 6ab. #e plan to firstly pro&ide one or more lecture notes to prepare students with SDR preliminaries and basic operation of the programmable platforms. 'nce the students are well prepared they can start wor-ing on the hands-on lab e+periments which will ta-e about ten to twel&e wee-s. 6ab reports will be designed to include a set of instructions on collecting and analyCing data and a set of :uestions?problems. *inal grades will be gi&en based on both lab performance and lab report grades. "ased on this test offering and feedbac- from the students we will re&isit and update the lab e+periments in the summer. Some fundamental :uestions to be answered are are these labs suitable for senior studentsL #hat are the prere:uisitesL Does our current curriculum co&er the sufficient bac-groundL #e also plan to find ways to incorporate our research outcomes on SDR and 7R with the lab to show students how to le&erage and capitaliCe the SDR potential to achie&e networ--wide performance impro&ements. .hese will also be organiCed into ad&anced labs for students who are interested to study more on this topic.

C" C-USI" S
In this paper we propose to introduce SDR into Auburn %ni&ersity8s undergraduate #ireless $ngineering 7urriculum. 'ur efforts consists of three thrusts( (i) introducing SDR e+periments for senior design and R$% pro!ects, (ii) using SDR e+periments as term pro!ects to enhance the e+isting courses, and (iii) de&eloping a new SDR lab course. #e report our e+perience with these efforts in this paper. In the near future we will fully de&elop the SDR lab course and offer it to our wireless engineering students. #e will also wor- on promoting adoption of the SDR lab at other institutions once it is fully de&eloped and tested.

AC$ "W-ED%&E !S
.his wor- is supported in part by the %S )ational Science *oundation ()S*) under @rants D%$3;DD;53 and 7)S-;4E<E3< and through the )S* "roadband #ireless Access and Application center ("#A7) Site at Auburn %ni&ersity. Any opinions Mndings and conclusions or

recommendations e+pressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reNect the &iews of the *oundation.

RE3ERE CES
O3P O5P O<P ODP 1. 2itola /.he software radio 0 in /roc. I000 1ational Telesystems 2onference pp.3E5< #ashington D7 2ay 3445. 1. =. Reed 3oftware 4adio: A (odern Approach to 4adio 0ngineering 9rentice =all 9.R %pper Saddle Ri&er )1 5;;5. R. #. =eath 1r. 5igital 6ireless 2ommunication: /hysical 7ayer 0xploration 7ab 8sing the 1I 834/ )ational .echnology and Science 9ress Allendale )1 5;35. >. Qhao S. 2ao 1.=. Reed and >. =uang /%tility function selection for streaming &ideos with a cogniti&e engine testbed 0 A2(93pringer (obile 1etwor s and Applications :ournal (2')$.) &ol.3E no.< pp.DDF DF; 1une 5;3;. S. =ay-in /7ogniti&e radio( "rain-empowered wireless communications 0 I000 :ournal on 3elected Areas in 2ommunications &ol.5< no.5 pp.5;355; *eb. 5;;E. >. Qhao S. 2ao 1. )eel and 1.=. Reed /9erformance e&aluation of cogniti&e radios( metrics utility functions and methodologies 0 /roceedings of the I000 &ol.4G no.D pp.FD5FE4 Apr. 5;;4. *ederal 7ommunications 7ommission (*77) /*acilitating opportunities for fle+ible efficient and reliable spectrum use employing cogniti&e radio technologies 0 1otice of /roposed 4ule (a ing and ;rder *77 ;< <55 Dec. 5;;<. *77 Spectrum 9olicy .as- *orce /Report of the spectrum efficiency wor-ing group 0 )o&. 5;;5. OonlineP A&ailable( http:99www.fcc.gov9sptf9reports.html. 1. 7orbet A. Rubini @. Rroah-=artman 7inux 5evice 5rivers <rd $dition. '8Reilly 2edia Inc. Sebastopol 7A 5;;E. 1. R. Anderson 6. 2. Reder and =. A. Simon /Situated learning and education 0 0ducational 4esearcher &ol.5E no.D pp.E33 2ay 344F. 1. 6a&e 2ognition in /ractice: (ind! (athematics and 2ulture in 0very 7ife 7ambridge %ni&ersity 9ress 7ambridge %R 34HH. @.1. 2inden 1.". $&ans 6.S. Searl D. Depardo R. Ra!banshi 1. @uffey K. 7hen ..R. )ewman B.R. 9etty *. #eidling 2. 9ec- ". 7ordill D. Datla ". "ar-er and A. Agah /An agile radio for wireless inno&ation 0 I000 2ommunications (aga<ine &ol.DE no.E pp.33D353 2ay 5;;G. >. =uang 9. #alsh >. 6i and S. 2ao SA @)% Radio testbed for distributed polling ser&ice-based medium access control S in /roc. I000 (I72;( &=$$ pp.E34E5D "altimore 2D )o&. 5;33. >. =uang 9. #alsh >. 6i and S. 2ao /A distributed polling ser&ice-based medium access control protocol testbed 0 7hapter 5 in (obile Ad-,oc 1etwor s pp.5<E3 =. Qhou (editor) In.ech Shanghai 7hina Dec. 5;35.

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