Transceiver devices are ubiquitous in today’s highly connected world. Various transceivers exist for a wide range of applicability, which often combine analog, digital, and mixed-signal components. This article focuses on software-defined radio (SDR), radio-frequency system-on-chip (RFSoC/SoC), and digital front-end (DFE) technologies, all of which work as transceiver devices with embedded digital-signal-processing (DSP) capabilities.
Discussed are the advantages/disadvantages of using an SDR with discrete integrated circuits (ICs) and other components for the analog domain, as opposed to RFSoC/SoC (or other fully embedded radio front ends).