As threats evolve and the electromagnetic environment grows more complex, military organisations need flexible tools that enable faster experimentation without compromising access to mission-proven hardware.
To support this requirement, we have successfully integrated our OpenCPI Support Project (OSP) with SoapySDR and developed a SoapySDR-compatible interface for the Guardsman Software Defined Radio (SDR) family. This enhancement opens the door to a broader ecosystem of SDR applications, allowing users to access Guardsman hardware through a widely adopted, vendor-neutral framework. This capability has also enabled third-party applications and open-source toolchains to control and receive data from Guardsman SDRs through a standardised API.
What is SoapySDR?
SoapySDR is an open-source, vendor-neutral SDR abstraction layer designed to simplify communication between software applications and SDR hardware.
Rather than requiring individual software packages to support every SDR device separately, SoapySDR provides a common API that standardises hardware interaction. Hardware-specific drivers then translate generic commands into instructions understood by individual radio platforms.
Developed by the Pothosware project and supported by a large international SDR community, SoapySDR has become a widely accepted standard for SDR interoperability.
Other key characteristics include:
- Primarily implemented in C/C++ and uses hardware-specific driver plug-ins to translate generic SDR commands into device-specific instructions
- Compatible with popular SDR environments such as GNU Radio and DragonOS.
- Designed for flexibility and portability rather than deterministic real-time operation
Extending the Guardsman ecosystem
Guardsman users can now accelerate development by taking advantage of familiar SDR tools and workflows. Benefits include:
- Rapid prototyping of new concepts and waveforms before committing to full OpenCPI development
- Faster evaluation of signals, algorithms and processing chains using familiar SDR tools
- Reduced development risk through early experimentation and proof-of-concept activities
Enabling research & academic collaboration
Innovation in defence emerges through collaboration between industry, government and academia. SoapySDR makes this collaboration easier and provides a lower barrier to entry for research using operationally relevant SDR platforms.
With access to mission-proven Guardsman hardware through widely adopted open-source SDR frameworks, researchers can focus on the development that matters most rather than spending valuable time creating bespoke hardware interfaces.
Future capability development
Defence programmes require agile developments that can transition innovative concepts into deployable operational capabilities as quickly as possible. SoapySDR supports future capability development through:
- Shorter development cycles from concept to deployable capability
- Faster transition of promising research into operational implementations
- Greater software portability and reuse across multiple SDR platforms
- Access to a broader ecosystem of existing SDR applications, tools and workflows
- Improved opportunities for third-party innovation and partner-developed applications
If you want to find out more about the benefits of SoapySDR, give our team a call today on +44(0)1329 722133.