Install or invoke?: The optimal trade-off between performance and cost in the design of multi-standard reconfigurable radios

We approach the design of multi-standard reconfigurable radio as a choice between two extremes: (a) installing complex, self-contained dedicated components that provide high performance at a high cost (‘Velcro approach’), versus (b) supporting all targeted standards through primitive lower level components, which reduces cost but maximises latency. To find the optimal trade-off between performance and cost, we build a mathematical model, in which we represent the design choices through a graph of progressively simpler functional modules. We illustrate our approach through a simple but realistic design example. Additionally, we show that this optimisation can be reformulated as a version of the well-known network-design problem, which opens the door to a wealth of results, algorithms and experience, already available in the scientific literature. We identify some specific algorithms that can help us find the optimal design and discuss limitations and future directions of our research program. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.