Software defined radio on digital communications: A new teaching tool

Abstract

In this paper we present a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform, composed by a USRP hardware and GNU Radio, as a new approach for teaching telecommunications at schools of Electrical Engineering. The proposed approach makes the preparation of an experiment faster by using modern communications architectures, which significantly reduce the occurrence of errors during the setup of test beds as well. This gives the students the opportunity to focus their efforts on the learning of communications techniques and algorithms. Furthermore, we intend to make easier the verification and validation processes of implemented models, supported by the use of specialized tools.