There are many circumstances when a signal intelligence
expert is faced with the need to quickly extract data from an
otherwise unknown signal, but lacks the knowledge of how the
signal was modulated. The traditional approach to this would
be to go through an analysis phase to construct a hypothesis
of the signal’s modulation parameters, an then enter a design
phase to create the required custom radio receiver. This process
is a slow progression of steps from signal analysis, receiver
modeling, receiver design, to prototyping. This process mimics
the traditional approach towards radio receiver design where a
fairly efficient radio is ultimately realized. Efficiency is usually
measured in terms of hardware resources used, such as gates
and multipliers, or power consumption. With the progression
of technology, many of these metrics are outdated or even
meaningless when instant gratification is needed.