The software communications architecture: two decades of software radio technology innovation

What began more than 20 years ago as a U.S. Department of Defense project aimed at implementing a radio system that could be reprogrammed on the fly to support multiple waveforms has evolved to become a widely adopted, versatile, and industry-changing architecture. The resulting Software Communication Architecture has now been deployed in more than 400,000 radios worldwide. This article explores the evolution of the SCA starting with its origins back in the SPEAKEasy Program to the upcoming release of SCA 4.1.