See also:
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/meetings/art/art98/slides98/bons/bons_s.pdf
Or you can get Google to translate it to plain text for you:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:rXYB54NsRPs:www.its.bldrdoc.gov/meetings/art/art98/slides98/bons/bons_s.pdf+software+radio+interoperation&hl=en
SPEAKeasy System
* The "PC of the Communications World"
* Fully Programmable Waveform and COMSEC
for Voice, Multimedia and Networking Use
* Multiband . . . continuous from 2MHz to
400MHz
* Open Modular HW Architecture
* Open SW Architecture
* Commercially Successful HW and SW
* Legacy Systems Compatibility
Hmm, it turns out that a niche that software defined radio
transceivers can fill is *translation* and *interoperation* among
different radio formats and frequencies. E.g. you have a pile of CB
radios and a pile of Family Radio Service radios at a big event like a
concert. You want them all to work together. You insert a SDR in the
middle that can watch both bands, copying over any signals of
interest. This also works for two different counties' fire
departments (a big problem in real life), for federal and state and
county and local police, for militaries from different countries who
need to work together, for bridging incompatible cellular systems in
emergencies, etc.
Because you can reprogram it in the field, on the fly, if the radio
can tune and interoperate with each of the two kinds of signal that
you want to hook up, the radio can probably patch them together.