The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) mandated by the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program office provides a software framework for the implementation of Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms. Developers of JTRS platforms must conform to SCA specifications and undergo certification to ensure these requirements have been met. As a result, many JTRS radio set developers who require FPGA or DSP devices to achieve the necessary performance levels for complex waveforms and multi-channel operation, have been faced with two choices: Either develop custom hardware and build SCA compliance into it from the ground up or buy COTS products and try to adapt the standard drivers and libraries for SCA compliance. Both choices pose tangible risk and cost factors.

By addressing the SCA compliance issue during the product development phase as part of the hardware and software engineering effort, COTS vendors can provide SCA-compliant hardware products fully supported with a core framework environment and development tools. This helps reduce risks and costs for the integration effort by JTRS radio developers.

An example will be presented for a JTRS transceiver board with discussion of the development strategies, design tradeoffs, pitfalls and recommendations for success.

• Overview JTRS
• Overview of SCA
• Mission Requirements for a COTS SCA Platform
• COTS Hardware Product Example
• CRC's SCA SCARI++ Core Framework and Tool Set
• SCA Porting Efforts
• SCA Compliant COTS Development System Offering
• Summary and Additional Resources