Platform hubs

The radio makers, software stacks and test-equipment vendors that matter, described without marketing: what you install, what it costs, where the sharp edges are, and what moved recently.

NI and Ettus

NI and Ettus Research

Makers of the USRP family of software-defined radios and the UHD driver. The default research SDR for cellular and MIMO work, from the bus-powered B200mini to 400 MHz X410 channels.

7 offerings · UHD and MPM under GPLv3 by default, with an alternative licence available from Ettus on request; USRP FPGA code under its own licensing; hardware proprietary

Analog Devices

Maker of the AD9361 family of RF transceivers inside many SDRs, the ADALM-Pluto learning radio, and the open libiio stack. Strong Linux and macOS host support.

7 offerings · libiio under LGPL-2.1-or-later (utilities GPL-2.0-or-later); pyadi-iio under a BSD-style ADI licence; gr-iio in GNU Radio under GPL-3.0; SoapyPlutoSDR (Pothosware) under LGPL-2.1; Pluto firmware an aggregation of separately licensed components; chips proprietary

GNU Radio

The free signal-processing framework most SDR work starts in. Flowgraphs in Python or C++, a graphical editor, drivers for most radios, and a 4.0 rewrite at release-candidate stage.

5 offerings · GNU Radio 3.10 under GPL-3.0-or-later; GNU Radio 4.0 core repositories under MIT and its Studio under GPL-3.0; VOLK 3.x under LGPL-3.0-or-later; radioconda installer code under BSD-3-Clause

srsRAN

srsRAN and Software Radio Systems

Open-source 4G and 5G RAN software from Software Radio Systems. srsRAN 4G is still released, and the 5G CU/DU code now continues as OCUDU under the Linux Foundation.

5 offerings · srsRAN 4G and the archived srsRAN Project under GNU AGPL v3 (LICENSE files in each repository); OCUDU, the successor to srsRAN Project, under the BSD 3-Clause Open MPI variant; srsRAN Enterprise 4G and 5G under commercial licence from SRS

OpenAirInterface

Open-source 4G and 5G RAN, UE and core network code from the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance, now under the CSSL licence and moving to GitHub as the LF Networking Duranta project.

5 offerings · RAN, CN5G and FlexRIC under the Collaborative Standards Software License v1.0 (CSSL), the RAN from tag 2026.w14 (earlier code under OAI Public License v1.1); EPC MME and HSS under BSD-3-Clause; orchestration files MIT; docs CC-BY-4.0

Qualcomm

San Diego chipmaker behind Snapdragon 5G modem-RF systems, FastConnect Wi-Fi, Dragonwing RAN accelerators and a large cellular patent licensing business. Chips sold to device makers, tools under NDA.

7 offerings · Proprietary chips, firmware and diagnostic tools (QXDM Professional and QCAT by annual subscription after an NDA); Linux ath11k and ath12k Wi-Fi drivers under BSD-3-Clause-Clear, ath10k under ISC; cellular standard-essential patents licensed by QTL for per-unit royalties

Ericsson

Swedish maker of LTE and 5G NR radio access, baseband and automation systems sold to operators and enterprises. Closed products, no public price list, and a large research output on 6G.

6 offerings · Proprietary hardware and software sold under commercial contract; some open-source projects published on github.com/Ericsson under their own licences

Nokia

Finnish maker of LTE and 5G NR radio access, private wireless and optical networks, home of Nokia Bell Labs. Closed products sold to operators and enterprises, with developer access through network APIs.

6 offerings · Proprietary hardware and software sold under commercial contract; open-source projects published on github.com/nokia under their own licences

Keysight

Keysight Technologies

Test and measurement maker behind UXA analysers, VXG generators, the 89600 VSA software and UXM network emulators. Proprietary, mostly quoted, and scriptable over SCPI from Python.

7 offerings · Proprietary instruments and PathWave software, licensed node-locked, floating, USB-portable or transportable, perpetual or subscription; IO Libraries Suite free with Keysight instruments; PyVISA and PyVISA-py (third party) under MIT

Rohde & Schwarz

Privately owned Munich test and measurement maker behind the FSW analyser, SMW200A generator and CMX500 5G tester. Proprietary, mostly quoted, with a free VISA for macOS and MIT-licensed Python tools.

7 offerings · Proprietary instruments and software options; R&S VISA free under R&S royalty-free terms; RsInstrument and RsWaveform Python packages under MIT

Nordic

Nordic Semiconductor

Norwegian maker of Bluetooth LE, Thread, Zigbee, Wi-Fi 6 and LTE-M/NB-IoT chips, with the Zephyr-based nRF Connect SDK. Toolchain runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.

8 offerings · nRF Connect SDK (sdk-nrf) under LicenseRef-Nordic-5-Clause, which restricts use to Nordic integrated circuits; Nordic's Zephyr fork under Apache-2.0; modem and radio firmware proprietary

Open source

Open-source radio ecosystem

SoapySDR, the open hardware and drivers of HackRF, bladeRF and LimeSDR, Open5GS and free5GC cores, and NVIDIA's Sionna simulator. The pieces most SDR projects combine.

7 offerings · SoapySDR under Boost Software License 1.0; HackRF under GPL-2.0; libbladeRF under LGPL-2.1 (bladeRF-cli GPL-2.0); LimeSuiteNG under Apache-2.0; Open5GS under AGPL-3.0 (commercial licences from NewPlane); free5GC and Sionna under Apache-2.0