Modern Receiver Architectures : Considerations for spectrum monitoring applications

The International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunications working group (ITU-R) outlines recommendations for the regulations and procedures for federal radio frequency management. They also provide recommendations for the measurement requirements and architectures for monitoring receivers. This paper looks at the evolution from the analog spectrum analyzer to the modern digital receiver in line with ITU-R Recommendations. It also gives some examples of the importance of the new architecture in today's spectrum environment.