Software-defined radio support in sequestered partitions
A software-defined radio (SDR) capability may be provided in a general purpose, many core processing system by sequestering one or more partitions running on one or more cores and instantiating a communications capability by having discrete SDR functions performed by the sequestered partitions. Each SDR module embodied in a sequestered partition may be independently upgraded without modifying the hardware of the underlying processing system. By executing SDR modules in cores not accessible by application programs and/or an operating system (OS), a better Quality of Service (QoS) may be provided for wireless communications on the general purpose, multi-core processing system. An embodiment comprises isolating a core of a many core processing system as a sequestered partition, loading a software-defined radio module onto the core, and executing the software-defined module to implement wireless communications.
1. A method comprising:
isolating, from an operating system executing on a many core processing system, a first and a second core of the many core processing system as first and second sequestered partitions;
loading, respectively, a first and a second software-defined radio module onto the first and second sequestered partitions;
executing the first software-defined module to implement a wireless communications processing function; and
forwarding selected data of the first sequestered partition, to be wirelessly transmitted from the many core processing system, from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio module via an inter-partition bridge.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein forwarding comprises emulating a wireless network interface controller memory-mapped channel with the inter-partition bridge.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inter-partition bridge comprises a shared memory buffer.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
processing, with the first software-defined radio module, a wireless signal received at the many core processing system;
wherein the data forwarded from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio module comprises the processed wireless signal.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein forwarding comprises applying a security policy to communication between the first software-defined radio module and the second software-defined radio module via the inter-partition bridge.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system matches a protocol supported by the many core processing system;
in response to determining that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system matches a protocol supported by the many core processing system, forwarding the wireless signal to the first software-defined radio module for processing.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system does not match any protocol supported by the many core processing system;
in response to determining that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system does not match any protocol supported by the many core processing system, ignoring the wireless signal.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communications processing function comprises command and control, input data handling, data acquisition synchronization, multi-user detection, multi-path profiling, signal update processing, demodulation, or output data handling.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
forwarding data from the second software-defined radio module to a firmware output driver for wireless transmission by a wireless transceiver.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upgrading the first software-defined radio module to support an additional wireless communication protocol.
11. A tangible machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
isolate, from an operating system executing on a many core processing system, a first and a second core of the many core processing system as respective first and second sequestered partitions;
load, respectively, a first and a second software-defined radio module onto the first and second sequestered partitions;
execute the first software-defined module to implement a wireless communications processing function; and
forward selected data of the first sequestered partition, to be wirelessly transmitted from the many core processing system, from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio modules via an inter-partition bridge.
12. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein forward comprises emulation of a wireless network interface controller memory-mapped channel with the inter-partition bridge.
13. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the inter-partition bridge comprises a shared memory buffer.
14. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
process, with the first software-defined radio module, a wireless signal received at the many core processing system;
wherein the data forwarded from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio module comprises the processed wireless signal.
15. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein forward comprises application of a security policy to communication between the first software-defined radio module and the second software-defined radio module via the inter-partition bridge.
16. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
determine that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system matches a protocol supported by the many core processing system; and
in response to determine that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system matches a protocol supported by the many core processing system, forward the wireless signal to the first software-defined radio module for processing.
17. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
determine that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system does not match any protocol supported by the many core processing system; and
in response to determine that a wireless signal received at the many core processing system does not match any protocol supported by the many core processing system, ignore the wireless signal.
18. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the wireless communications processing function comprises command and control, input data handling, data acquisition synchronization, multi-user detection, multi-path profiling, signal update processing, demodulation, or output data handling.
19. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
forward output data from the second software-defined radio module to a firmware output driver for wireless transmission by a wireless transceiver.
20. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
upgrade the first software-defined radio module to support an additional wireless communication protocol.
21. A many core processing system comprising:
a plurality of cores, wherein a first and a second core are isolated as first and second sequestered partitions from an operating system executing on the many core processing system;
a memory divided into partitions;
a first and a second software-defined radio module, the first software-defined radio module loaded onto the first sequestered partition, the second software-defined radio module loaded onto the second sequestered partition, and the first software-defined radio module executable to implement a wireless communications processing function; and
an inter-partition bridge by which selected data of the first sequestered partition, to be wirelessly transmitted from the many core processing system, is to be forwarded from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio module.
22. The many core processing system of claim 21 , wherein the inter-partition bridge is configured to enable emulation of a wireless network interface controller memory-mapped channel.
23. The many core processing system of claim 1 , wherein the inter-partition bridge comprises a shared memory buffer.
24. The many core processing system of claim 21 , wherein:
the first software-defined radio module is to process a wireless signal received at the many core processing system, and
the data forwarded from the first software-defined radio module to the second software-defined radio module comprises the processed wireless signal.
25. The many core processing system of claim 24 , wherein the inter-partition bridge is configured to allow communication between the first software-defined radio module and the second software-defined radio module in accordance with a security policy.
26. The many core processing system of claim 21 , further comprising:
a wireless transceiver to receive a wireless signal;
wherein the first software-defined radio module is to process the wireless signal after a determination that the wireless signal matches a protocol supported by the many core processing system.
27. The many core processing system of claim 21 , further comprising:
a wireless transceiver to receive a wireless signal;
wherein the first software-defined radio module is to ignore the wireless signal after a determination that the wireless signal does not match a protocol supported by the many core processing system.
28. The many core processing system of claim 21 , wherein the wireless communications processing function comprises command and control, input data handling, data acquisition synchronization, multi-user detection, multi-path profiling, signal update processing, demodulation, or output data handling.
29. The many core processing system of claim 21 , further comprising:
a firmware output driver to receive data forwarded from the second software-defined radio module; and
a wireless transceiver to transmit the data received at the firmware output driver.
30. The many core processing system of claim 21 , wherein the first and the second software-defined radio module are upgradable to support an additional wireless communication protocol.