ata-rate signal acquisition, more accurate channel estimation for highly selective fading environments, fast signal quality estimation algorithms involved in power control, and optimum combining of signals for diversity gains in space and time, demand all the power a processor can pro- duce. These demands can be realized more rapidly through Software Defined Radio (SDR). Thus, while compatibility between standards remains attractive, SDRs will shape into software and hardware reconfigurable radios in the RF, intermediate frequency (IF), as well as base-band processing stages [31-34]. 1.3.4 Implementation and Integration Aspects Research studies aiming to improve the overall performance of multiple access tech- niques such as WCDMA or TDCDMA have provided interesting and applicable meth- ods. However, these results may not necessarily be part of the first UTRA commercial systems in the next 2 years. Thus, it will be some time before techniques such as Soft- ware Radio, Adaptive Antennas, and Multi-user Detection enhance capacity, coverage and increase system stability. Implementation and integration appear as key limitations to bring these advanced tech- niques into operating systems or near future1 exploitable networks. Processing power demands for example, do not allow rapid implementation of the above methods. Fur- thermore, integrating such techniques into smaller components is a great challenge. This means, that while less optimum supporting techniques like system on a chip, maximiz- ing power consumption, or operating at very low power come into place; the aforemen- tioned improvements will remain academic. At present, while UMTS frequency licensing becomes big business for governments, operators seem to have fall into the spin of supremacy and consolidation for market share and have somehow forgotten the timeliness of technology. Manufacturers are finding themselves in a race to supply plain vanilla solutions and are incapable of im- plementing true breakthroughs in multiple access or radio-access technique