What is wireless software-defined radio (SDR)?
The Core Idea: From Hardware to Software
At its heart, a Wireless SDR is a radio system where components that have traditionally been implemented in hardware (like mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators) are instead implemented using software on a personal computer or embedded system.
You can think of it like this:
Traditional Radio: A physical circuit is designed and built to only ever receive FM radio. To get AM radio, you need a different physical circuit.
Software-Defined Radio: A generic piece of hardware captures a wide chunk of the radio spectrum. Then, software on a computer is used to decode that raw data into FM, AM, WiFi, Bluetooth, or any other signal you can write code for. You change the radio's fundamental behavior by changing its software.
