Ettus Research - 2010 Technology of the Year
Ettus Research's Universal Software Radio Peripheral product family has been the most important enabling technology in the field of software defined and cognitive radio research for the past five years. In producing and supporting a highly versatile, low-cost RF front end, Ettus Research have made the field accessible to a broad range of researchers, encouraging a new generation of radio experimenters and bridging the gap between the simulation environment and real-world demonstrations.
Today, the USRP family is used by researchers around the world in applications from handset tracking in shopping centres to genetic-algorithm-driven cognitive radios and fully-functional GSM BTS deployments. Low cost, combined with an open source approach where everything including schematics, firmware, drivers and FPGA and daughterboard designs are available makes the USRP product family the most accessible RF front-end available for software-defined and cognitive radio research today.