Q. Can team members change over the course of the Challenge?

A. We expect that students will continue to graduate, and thus the team may change over the years. At least one of the original members of the team must remain on the team.

Q. If an original team member graduates, can he or she still be on the team?

A. Students who have graduated and are working full time in industry are no longer eligible to be on the team. Students who have received their doctorates and are now post doctoral fellows are also no longer eligible to be team members (because they are working).

Q. Can a student team include students from more than one university?

A. Yes, but the advisor must be from the university of the student who is the point of contact.

Q. If student teams change members and eventually win the Challenge, are all of the students who were involved at any time eligible for the prize?

A. No, the prizes are awarded only to the team members at the time of submittal of the final product.  Each team can, on their own initiative, decide how students who are no longer on the team can be recognized.

Q. Does our university have to be a member of the SDR Forum to enter the Challenge?

A. No, the competition is open to all universities worldwide; membership in the SDR Forum is not required.

Q. Does our team have to find a sponsor?

A.  No.  Teams do not need to find their own sponsors. Sponsors are encouraged to participate through the SDR Forum to make resources available fairly to all teams.

Q.  Is there any specific technology that teams must use?

A.   All teams will be given a set of hardware and software technologies provided by the sponsors for each problem, including both components and tools. Teams are encouraged to evaluate and use these technologies, but they have the option to use alternative technologies.

Q. Can part-time students participate in the Smart Radio Challenge?

A.  Part-time students who are actively taking classes and have student standing with the university are eligible to participate

Q: Are there additional waveform design considerations such as multiple access (MA) techniques which may also be expected of the waveform design parameters?

 A: CDMA will will not be expected. However, TDMA and FDMA may be expected options. 

Q: Must we design all the components of the RF front end, or may we use integrated circuits? 

Answer: Yes, integrated circuits may be used.

Q:  What are the requirements for the radio challenge notebooks? Do we need the traditional bound engineering notebook, or can people use three ring binders? What about electronic notebooks?

A:  Three ring binders or electronic media will be acceptable, as long as they are complete.

Q: In problem 2 the scenario states that there is a part of the spectrum that is experiencing a decline in QoS. From this sentence one could imply that there is a part of the spectrum allocated to us, but unable to support new users.  

A: The idea is that as the number of users goes up, access to spectrum and spectral collisions goes up, so the quality of service diminishes

Q: Could this part of the spectrum be outside of the 2.4GHz ISM Bands?

A: No

Q: If it is inside the 2.4GHz ISM Band, where is it located? Will other devices transmit in this spectrum? If they transmit in this spectrum will they still be considered primary devices?

A: The spectral location will not be known apriori. Yes, other devices will transmit in the spectrum. Yes, they may still be considered primary devices.

Q: In Problem #3, the problem states that the payload data will be received over a 10/100 ethernet connection. Does this mean that the baseband data is received over this connection, and all our hardware has to do is process the data and send it back over the 10/100 ethernet connection? Or will we need to implement a dedicated RF transceiver to transmit the data?

A: Each terminal will provide an RF to Ethernet link, similar to a wireless card attached to a laptop. That is the terminal will receive data to be transmitted wirelessly via a 10/100 ethernet connection, and forward data wirelessly. Similarly, the terminal should receive information over the wireless link, and forward it to the 10/100 TCP/IP ethernet connection.

Q: If the data transmission is over the Ethernet connection, should we design the RF part of the SDR modem, or just the baseband part of the modem? Our definition of the RF section is the up-converter from baseband to RF, filters, power amplifier, and antenna.

A: The student teams are responsible for developing the entire RF to Ethernet terminal.

Q: For our proposal, we need to propose a list of materials. Is there a website that states the list of sponsorship materials available?

A: Both GreenHills Software and The Mathworks have agreed to provide software for the Smart Radio Challenge 2008. Details on specific software packages will be provided at a later date. Additional sponsors are being sought, and additional sponsorship materials may also be available at a later date.

Q: What should we assume for available support components?

A: SDR Forum is finalizing the list of sponsors at this time. You should only assume support from currently announced sponsored listed on the web site. The web site will be updated as soon as new sponsors complete the signup process.

Q: In this link (http://www.radiochallenge.org/08Phases.html), it is mentioned that the deadline to submit the proposal is September 30. On the other hand, in the preparation instruction pdf file it is mentioned that the deadline is October 19. Which date is the correct deadline?

A: The deadline is October 19. The materials on the website will be corrected to reflect this.

Q: is there any predefined protocol at the Ethernet connection, or are we assuming Internet TCP/UDP?

A: Please assume TCP/IP.

Q: How should we address the requirement to demonstrate support for multiple access as defined in the problem? We are uncertain about this because from what we understand, these multiple access methods are for the case when there is a sharing of channel between different users and these methods are applied to increase the capacity. But in the case of our problem there will only be single transmitter and single receiver, thus no need for Multiple Access.

A: The system is assumed to be time division duplex. In TDD each system takes a turn transmitting a packet, and then listens to the ACK/NAK or other response from the other node.

Q: In multi carrier OFDM, does each carrier included in OFDM has a different modulation scheme or all carriers have the same modulation?

A: Each carrier of the OFDM traffic carriers will have the same modulation. Pilot carriers will have simple QPSK modulation. We will define the PN pattern of the pilots at a later time.