Evaluation Engineeering - 22

DAQ/SDR

SOLVING
DATA ACQUISITION
PROBLEMS WITH
SOFTWARE-DEFINED
RADIO
by Brandon Malatest

Data acquisition (DAQ) is the process
of acquiring raw data in the form of
a measured electrical or physical phenomenon from various sources and converting
it into a measurable signal for processing.
Systems used must be capable of acquiring, converting, and transferring data to
a processor as quickly and accurately as
possible, which is becoming increasingly
difficult as the amount of data and the
rate at which it needs to be transmitted
is constantly rising.
As technology continues to advance,
the demands on data acquisition technology have similarly increased, making
traditional systems insufficient. Closed
architecture and hardware-based technology dedicated to specific applications
require different frequencies, bandwidths,
modulation modes, and protocols-each
presenting very evident disadvantages.
Limiting the deployment scenarios, signal
types, and applications leads to further
disadvantages in terms of cost, production cycle, and compatibility, as well as
DAQ's inability to handle testing and
reconfiguration.
These systems are also facing challenges related to storage, processing
power, noise control, and data traffic

EVALUATION ENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 2019

iStock.com/monsitj

control. Of these, the two that have the
greatest impact on DAQ systems today
are system integration and unit flexibility.
Without these attributes, data can easily be skewed, the capacity of the system
is greatly hindered, and costs related to
keeping up with changes and demands
are high.

Innovation needed
With these problems being recognized,
the need for new DAQ systems that are
able to overcome these and future challenges is being addressed in new technological developments. Through the
integration of both 1) hardware that can
handle the stress of the most hostile environments and 2) software that can handle
present-day tasks and is easily upgradable to accommodate the advancements
necessary for future tasks, there has been
a shift to technology that is able to leverage open architecture and emphasize
interoperability.
This is especially essential for the combination of wired and wireless technology
that must use the same DAQ system. The
decision to use wireless or wired solutions
is dependent on the system in which it
is implemented. Wired solutions are

seeing immense improvements, especially
through the use of optical cables, which
are light and suitable for harsh conditions.
Meanwhile, wireless solutions are providing alternatives for problems where wired
installations are costly or time consuming
to implement, or add significant weight to
the system. Remote sensing is also seeing
vast improvements in terms of processing power, frequency bandwidth, and interference control-allowing for remote
interrogation of sensors. This shift is also
essential for enabling the convergence of
new technology with existing systems in
a wide variety of industries, driving down
costs while driving up performance and
capabilities.

Putting SDR to use
The proposed solution is the integration of
software defined radio (SDR) within dataacquisition systems. SDRs are transceivers
whose functions are defined by software,
allowing them to offer users with necessary flexibility. An SDR acts as a receiver
in this system, combining both DAQ and
signal-processing on the same device while
permitting for acquiring and transmitting
of data as needed-opening the door to
many more possibilities. DAQ systems

http://www.iStock.com/monsitj

Evaluation Engineeering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineeering