More Dollars, More SWaP – the Right Trade-Off? Picking the Right SDR Architecture for the Task
WhitepaperApril 28, 2026
Software defined radio (SDR) design is a constant tradeoff between form and function, or the desired performance attributes against what we have to pay for them in terms of size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C).
The typical list of radio desired attributes can include:
- RF performance such as noise figure (NF) or linearity (IP3)
- Number of receive (Rx) or transmit (Tx) channels
- Instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) and frequency coverage
- Integrated processing capability
- High speed interfaces supported
Optimizing any or all of these characteristics is almost always at the detriment of SWaP-C. Beyond obvious trade-offs, for example adding channels increasing power consumption, there are other more subtle decisions to be made depending upon the target application. To get an idea of some, we will use two Epiq products that seem very similar on the surface, but underneath are designed very differently and offer very different performance and SWaP-C operating points.
