Despite SDR's maturity as an object of research, most books treat it as a new technology and adopt a theoretical perspective. This new publication, with an avowedly practical approach, brings SDR down to earth for the benefit of practicing engineers and graduate students. Despite the apparent similarities to single-function radios, designers of SDRs need to know that the devil is in the details, as they face myriad choices and trade-offs in their work. This volume covers most of these alternatives, and thus is an ideal companion to those beginning an SDR development project and who need to pin down the hardware architecture. The examples deployed have all been built, debugged, and tested by the author, who highlights some of the pitfalls to be avoided, saving designers countless hours of adjustments. In addition, the sections on design flow and hardware architectures are equally applicable to many other digital designs, while a useful appendix offers a whirlwind tour of wireless communications in general.