What StrathSDR does

StrathSDR is the University of Strathclyde's Software Defined Radio research laboratory, founded in 2020 within the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. The group conducts applied research in advanced wireless communications, with a primary focus on Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA), beamforming, network synchronization, and AI hardware acceleration. Its technology stack centers on AMD's Radio Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) devices and the Python-based PYNQ framework for hardware-software co-design. The lab ships an open-source portfolio of reference designs: the RFSoC Spectrum Analyser Module (SAM) for real-time spectral analysis up to 2.048 GHz instantaneous bandwidth (extendable to 4.096 GHz via Nyquist Zone techniques), a QSFP Data Offload platform sustaining ~80 Gbit/s throughput with GPU acceleration, the ON-SIDE spectrum intelligence stack with an O-RAN-compliant 7.2 split Radio Unit, and the TUDOR 3D spectrum monitoring platform for terrestrial and non-terrestrial 6G bands. Supporting outputs include the PYNQ.remote and PYNQ.cpp framework extensions, the Spectrum Map tool that overlays live RF data with Ofcom's open band allocation dataset, a free PDF textbook published with AMD, and a 4-day quantum instrumentation training course delivered in partnership with Durham University QLM and supported by the National Quantum Computing Centre.

The team of 10 academic staff, 2 Knowledge Exchange Fellows, and 9 PhD students is led by Professor Bob Stewart, who also sits on the board of Neutral Wireless Ltd, a university spin-out commercializing the lab's private 5G work. StrathSDR operates as a community-led research lab rather than a product company: it distributes designs via GitHub under open-source licences, generates revenue through government research grants (notably DSIT's Future Open Networks Research Challenge funding the £12m TUDOR consortium) and modest course fees, and engages industry through collaborative projects. Its primary customer segments are academic researchers, the broadcast and media production industry (with deployments at the Coronation of King Charles III and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games), telecommunications network operators, and RF engineers; strategic partners include AMD/Xilinx, Cisco, BBC, the National Physical Laboratory, and Glasgow City Council. The business model is structurally grant-funded, with no traditional product pricing or equity capital.

Name

StrathSDR

Legal name

University of Strathclyde

Website

https://sdr.eee.strath.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

StrathSDR is the University of Strathclyde's Software Defined Radio research lab, building open-source AMD RFSoC-based platforms for spectrum sensing, private 5G, and 6G, funded by government grants and serving academic, broadcast, and telecom partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Glasgow

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Funding: StrathSDR operates as a university research lab funded through government research programmes including DSIT Future Open Networks Research Challenge, UKTIN projects, and other public funding bodies. Revenue comes from collaborative research grants supporting 5G, 6G, and spectrum management research.
2. Training Course Fees: Short technical training courses offered for academic scientists and engineers, such as the Quantum Instrumentation & Control with RFSoC & PYNQ course priced at £150 per person.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

StrathSDR is the Software Defined Radio research group within the University of Strathclyde's Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. It develops open-source SDR platforms, FPGA firmware, and software tools built around AMD RFSoC hardware for applications in 5G/6G wireless, dynamic spectrum access, broadcast, and quantum instrumentation. The group also publishes peer-reviewed research, a textbook on SDR with RFSoC, and runs CPD training courses for industry and academic users.

Product overview

StrathSDR is the University of Strathclyde's Software Defined Radio research laboratory developing a portfolio of open-source SDR platforms, tools, and educational resources built around AMD RFSoC technology. The core product lineup centers on the RFSoC Spectrum Analyser Module (SAM) for real-time spectral analysis and the QSFP Data Offload Design for high-speed RF data transfer. These integrate with the PYNQ software framework for Python-based control. The ON-SIDE platform provides spectrum intelligence and O-RAN-compliant radio units for private 5G, while the TUDOR platform enables 3D spectrum monitoring for 6G systems. Supporting offerings include the Spectrum Map visualization tool, technical textbooks, and specialized training courses on quantum instrumentation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• RFSoC Spectrum Analyser Module (SAM) An open-source spectrum analyser module built on AMD RFSoC hardware for capturing, visualising, and analysing wideband RF spectra. Targets SDR researchers, wireless engineers, and educators who need a ready-to-use spectrum measurement platform.
• QSFP Data Offload Design A high-speed data offload reference design using QSFP links to stream wideband RF samples off RFSoC platforms for processing and storage. Designed for SDR researchers and engineers working with multi-Gsps sample rates.
• ON-SIDE Spectrum Intelligence Platform An open-source spectrum intelligence platform that uses deep-learning/CNN-based classification to identify and characterise signals in captured RF spectra. Built on RFSoC and targeted at dynamic spectrum access and regulatory monitoring use cases.
• TUDOR Spectrum Monitoring Platform An online, distributed spectrum monitoring platform that aggregates measurements from multiple geographically separated RFSoC sensors to provide wide-area spectrum situational awareness. Targets regulators, researchers, and wireless operators.
• StrathSDR Spectrum Map Tool An open-source tool that produces geo-located maps of RF spectrum measurements from RFSoC sensors, intended for spectrum-sharing research, coverage studies, and educational use.
• Software Defined Radio with Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC (textbook) A comprehensive technical book covering the theory, design, and practical implementation of Software Defined Radio on AMD RFSoC devices, marketed by Strathclyde University Press to students, researchers, and engineers.
• 5G Software Defined Radio Course An in-person training course delivering CPD on 5G SDR design using RFSoC hardware, priced at £150 per attendee and aimed at industry engineers and academic researchers.
• Quantum Instrumentation & Control Course A training course covering RFSoC-based quantum instrumentation and control, delivered to researchers and engineers entering the quantum computing field.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20% improvement in request performance compared to traditional exclusive resource sharing approach for dynamic spectrum management
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability7 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUK government department funding the TUDOR project (UK's largest 6G research programme) under the Future Open Networks Research Challenge, bringing together 8 universities and 17 industry partners.
• AMD (Xilinx)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTechnology partner providing RFSoC hardware platforms. StrathSDR collaborates with AMD on book publication 'Software Defined Radio with Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC' and course delivery. Interns have worked with AMD PYNQ development team.
• CiscocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ON-SIDE project bringing together Cisco, Neutral Wireless, University of Strathclyde, AMD, BBC, University of Glasgow, Glasgow City Council, Logicalis, and Scottish Wireless to advance private 5G networks.
• BBCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBroadcast partner in ON-SIDE project for advancing future of private 5G networks and spectrum awareness in broadcast environments.
• Neutral Wireless LtdcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity spin-out company specializing in private 5G network design for broadcast industry. Co-delivered ON-SIDE project. StrathSDR Director Bob Stewart is also a director of Neutral Wireless.
• University of GlasgowminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in ON-SIDE consortium for collaborative research on private 5G networks.
• Glasgow City CouncilminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal government partner in ON-SIDE project supporting smart city and public sector connectivity initiatives.
• LogicalisminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorTechnology partner in ON-SIDE project contributing to private 5G network development and deployment.
• Scottish WirelessminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner in ON-SIDE project contributing wireless infrastructure expertise for private 5G networks.
• Durham University QLMcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborating partner in Quantum Instrumentation & Control course delivery. Durham QLM research group focuses on quantum properties of atoms, molecules, and solids using RFSoC systems for quantum simulators.
• National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting partner for quantum instrumentation course development assisting with adaptation for quantum context.
• National Physical Laboratory (NPL)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborating institution for PhD research on high-accuracy timing for future wireless networks and fibre-optic dissemination of precise time and frequency.
• CENSISminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerScotland's national centre for sensing, imaging and IoT supporting PhD research on 5G implementation using SDR with AMD.
• University of SurreyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in TUDOR consortium working on Towards Ubiquitous 3D Open Resilient Network research.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• MathWorks: MATLAB/Simulink tooling partner where multiple StrathSDR PhDs have interned; complementary (not competitive) — MathWorks provides the simulation/design environment, StrathSDR provides the RFSoC implementation.
• BittWare: FPGA board vendor (acquired by Molex) supplying Intel/Altera-based boards — adjacent ecosystem player compared to StrathSDR's Xilinx RFSoC focus, with overlapping researcher/broadcaster customers.

Broad incumbents

• AMD (Xilinx): Hardware platform provider and strategic collaborator. AMD's RFSoC silicon and PYNQ framework are foundational to StrathSDR; AMD's broader portfolio dwarfs the lab but the overlap in the SDR/5G research use case is direct.

Direct peers

• KU Leuven ESAT-WaveCore / SDR group: Leading European SDR and wireless research group publishing comparable work on FPGA-based OFDM, beamforming, and 5G/6G prototyping — a direct academic peer in scale, scope, and tooling philosophy.
• ThinkRF: Software-defined spectrum analysis company offering wideband RF receivers for spectrum monitoring and regulatory use — comparable product category to StrathSDR's spectrum analysis and DSA platforms.
• 5G/6G Innovation Centre, University of Surrey: Major UK university 5G/6G research centre and TUDOR consortium partner with comparable scope in testbeds, spectrum, and Open RAN research — the closest academic peer to StrathSDR within the UK.
• Signal Hound: Manufacturer of compact, lower-cost spectrum analysers and SDR receivers (BB60C, B200) that compete head-to-head with the RFSoC SAM as accessible alternatives to commercial test equipment for RF engineers and educators.
• Per Vices Corporation: Canadian maker of high-performance SDR platforms (Cyan, Noctar, Crimson) used in spectrum monitoring, 5G, and defence. Directly comparable to StrathSDR's wideband, FPGA-based RFSoC designs targeting spectrum analysis and DSA.
• Ettus Research (National Instruments): USRP is the de facto open SDR hardware platform; directly comparable to StrathSDR's RFSoC SAM and QSFP offload boards as competing programmable RF platforms used in 5G/6G research labs worldwide.
• Deepwave Digital: AI-on-RF company commercialising deep learning for RF signal classification and spectrum sensing — directly overlaps with StrathSDR's FPGA-based CNN modulation classification and AI hardware acceleration research.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/strathsdr
• GitHubgithub.com/strath-sdr
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/strathsdr

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about StrathSDR