Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] article: "No-knob" radio: the future ofWarfighter communications?

[Jeff Brower]

Ettus Guys-

> http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/01/27/33577-no-knob-radio-the-future-of-warfighter-communications/
>
> "No-knob" radio: the future of Warfighter communications?

After as week, this brings up a question:  is there supposed to be an official 
PR or other announcement about the
acquisition on NI's website?  I don't see anything yet.

I would think that some statement from NI clarifying continuation of open 
source status and GPL licensing for GNU
radio software (and hardware and FPGA logic, very crucial) would be re-assuring 
to GNU radio developers and users, as
well as users-in-planning -- such as US Army guys mentioned below.  Unless the 
acquisition hasn't actually closed yet,
then the only thing I can guess that might be holding up NI is if they need to 
tweak their wording, for example
mention items that might be excepted from GNU licensing if they conflict with 
one of their many patents.  The block
diagram user interface in GRC would be one possible example.

-Jeff

> Jan 27, 2010
>
> By Sharon Rushen, CERDEC Public Affairs
>
> FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. - U.S. Army engineers in collaboration with
> their Navy counterparts hope to open the gates of cognitive radio
> development to academia, industry and other DoD organizations by
> building a universal radio test-bed this year.
>
> The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
> Engineering Center's Software Defined Radio lab will work with the
> Navy Research Lab to transfer previous development done on the
> Joint Tactical Radio System to the GNU Radio's open source, free
> software environment.
>
> Through the GNU platform which is inexpensive and universally
> accessible, universities, contract companies and government
> agencies can use a common platform to advance the state of
> cognitive radio software. The transition to the GNU platform will
> help ease collaboration efforts with other organizations who
> frequently opt to use 'grass-roots' hardware for programming due
> to the comparably high-cost and limited accessibility of JTRS radios.
>
> Additionally, the GNU platform will enable the SDR lab to conduct
> large lab tests and field tests, rather than having to simulate
> larger-scale network testing. The cost constraints associated with
> the JTRS radio prohibit larger-scale networking, limiting the
> number of radios they can test at one time, explained SDR lab team
> lead, Tim Leising.
>
> Through funding provided by the Office of the Secretary of
> Defense, Director of Defense, Research and Engineering, the SDR
> lab team will collaborate with the Navy Research Lab, to start
> building a universal GNU radio test bed this year. Once the
> test-bed is completed, they will work together to make it
> remote-accessible using the Defense Research Engineering Network
> to house the software platform, allowing DoD organizations and
> external research partners to test their software on it from any
> location.
>
> CERDEC will facilitate a dial-in Q&A session for media
> participants to interact with leading U.S. Army researchers
> involved in developing the GNU test-bed. To participate in the
> media round table, contact CERDEC Public Affairs: (732) 427-1926.
>
> The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
> Engineering Center (CERDEC) is one of the research and development
> centers under the U.S. Army's Research, Development and
> Engineering Command (RDECOM).
>
> The Software-Defined Radio (SDR) lab is part of CERDEC's Space and
> Terrestrial Communications Directorate.
> --------------------------
> de Ken N9VV