This handbook shows how DDCs (Digital Downconverters) and DUCs (Digital Upconverters), the fundamental building blocks of SDR, can replace conventional analog receiver designs, offering significant benefits in performance, density and cost.

In order to fully appreciate the benefits of SDR, a conventional analog receiver system will be compared to its digital receiver counterpart, highlighting similarities and differences.

SDRs can dramatically reduce the DSP requirements for systems which need to process signals contained within a certain frequency band of a wideband signal.

With the addition of FPGA technology, dramatic increases in system density have been coupled with a significantly lower cost per channel. Furthermore, FPGA technology allows one to incorporate custom algorithms right at the front end of these systems.