As the complexity of software increases, so does the complexity of software testing. This challenge is especially true for modern military communications as radio functionality becomes more digital than analog. The Software Communications Architecture was introduced to manage the increased complexity of software radios. But the challenge of testing software radios still remains. A common methodology of software testing is the unit test. However, unit testing of software assumes that the software under test can be decomposed into its fundamental units of work. The intention of such decomposition is to simplify the problem of identifying the set of test cases needed to demonstrate correct behavior. In practice, large software efforts can rarely be decomposed in simple and obvious ways. In this paper, we introduce the fuzzing methodology of software testing as it applies to software radios. Fuzzing is a methodology that acts only on the inputs of a system and iteratively generates new test cases in order to identify points of failure in the system under test. The REDHAWK implementation of the Software Communications Architecture is employed as the system under test by a fuzzing framework called Peach. Fuzz testing of REDHAWK identified a software bug within the Core Framework, along with a systemic flaw that leaves the system in an invalid state and open to malicious use. It is recommended that a form of Fault Detection be integrated into REDHAWK for collocated processes at a minimum, and distributed processes at best, in order to provide a more fault tolerant system. / Master of Science

This thesis establishes the need for a standardized, interoperable, front end interface to support the development of open RAN technologies, and establishes the viability and desirability of the VITA 49 interface standard as the alternative to other interface technologies. The purpose of this work is to propose a testbed platform for the further development for VITA 49 as a standard frontend interface as other current testbeds are not designed not as well suited to the VITA 49 standard or open RAN architecture. The VITA 49 interface standard provides a packetized interface between the front-end and the digital back-end of a split architecture system in a way that enables hardware interoperability between and within vendor supplies. The VITA 49 Radio Transport standard is ideally appropriate for integration into SDRs [12] due to its flexibility and metadata support. The REDHAWK platform is an integrated development environment which is used to develop a radio system that utilizes a remote radio unit to send and receive signals which transmits it using the VITA 49 protocol to the base band unit for processing. It was found that REDHAWK is better than GNURadio for this purpose, and that VRT technology is a much better than the current CPRI Standard as it provides an open standard, that enables a flexible, scalable interface that enables long-term growth.