A key element of the SDR Forum's strategy is to maintain strong relationships with "partner" organizations, including both standards bodies and other industry consortia, to support the needs of our members. In advancing this strategy, the goal of the SDR Forum is to collaborate, not compete, with partner organizations having overlapping interests, establishing the SDR Forum as a single location where members can go to interact with a wide range of relevant third-party organizations.

The SDR Forum currently has formal relationships in place with the following organizations:

International Telecommunication Union - Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R)
ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies. As the global focal point for governments and the private sector, ITU's role in helping the world communicate spans 3 core sectors: radiocommunication, standardization and development. ITU also organizes TELECOM events and was the lead organizing agency of the World Summit on the Information Society. The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) plays a vital role in the global management of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits - limited natural resources which are increasingly in demand from a large and growing number of services such as fixed, mobile, broadcasting, amateur, space research, emergency telecommunications, meteorology, global positioning systems, environmental monitoring and communication services - that ensure safety of life on land, at sea and in the skies.

The SDR Forum is an associate member of ITU-R.

IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE is a leading developer of standards that underpin many of today's technologies. Their standards are developed in a unique environment that builds consensus in an open process based on input from all interested parties. With nearly 1,300 standards either completed or under development, we are a central source of standardization in both traditional and emerging fields, particularly telecommunications, information technology and power generation.

The SDR Forum is a corporate member of the IEEE Standards Association.

IEEE Communications Society
The SDR Forum has established a relationship with the IEEE Communications Society(ComSoc): Information on membership, conferences, publications, online tutorials, webinars and new wireless certification program can be found at www.comsoc.org.

Object Management Group (OMG)
The Object Management Group™ (OMG™) is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry standards consortium. OMG member companies write, adopt, and maintain its standards following a mature, open process. OMG's standards include: Model Driven Architecture® ,Unified Modeling Language™, and CORBA®.

The SDR Forum is a member of the OMG and has made the OMG an SDR Forum member to simplify collaboration between the two groups.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute ("ETSI") is an industry-led standards development organization with a membership of over 700 manufacturers, network operators, service providers, research bodies, regulatory bodies and academia from over 50 countries, ETSI undertakes pre-standardization and standardization activities in areas common to telecommunications, information technology, sound and television broadcasting, ETSI aims to produce globally applicable standards and is the recognized European Standardization Organization for telecommunications,

The SDR Forum has a Letter of Intent to Cooperate with the ETSI Technical Committee on Reconfigurable Radio Systems (TC RRS) to explore collaboration between the two organizations.

The End-to-End Efficiency Program (E3)
The End-to-End Efficiency (E3) project is an ambitious FP7 EC Large Scale Integrating Project (IP) aiming at integrating cognitive wireless systems in the Beyond 3G (B3G) world, evolving current heterogeneous wireless system infrastructures into an integrated, scalable and efficiently managed B3G cognitive system framework. The key objective of the E3 project is to design, develop, prototype and showcase solutions to guarantee interoperability, flexibility and scalability between existing legacy and future wireless systems, manage the overall system complexity, and ensure convergence across access technologies, business domains, regulatory domains and geographical regions. 

The SDR Forum has a memorandum of understanding with the E3 program to allow collaboration between the two organizations.

JTRS Science and Technology Forum
The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), headquartered in San Diego, California, was initiated in early 1997 to improve and consolidate the Services' pursuit of separable solutions to replace legacy radios within the US Department of Defense Inventory. The JTRS program has evolved from separate radio replacement programs to an integrated effort to network multiple weapons system platforms and forward combat units where it matters most - the last tactical mile. JTRS will link the power of the Global Information Grid to the warfighter in applying fire effects and achieving overall battlefield superiority.

The SDR Forum has a formal memorandum of understanding with the JTRS Science and Technology Forum (JSTeF) to allow collaboration between the two organizations.

Mobile VCE
Mobile VCE provides industrially-relevant, long-term, world-class, research in mobile and personal communications defined & steered by our industrial members.Its innovative structure accesses the highest quality academic skills and staff, whilst ensuring that research is industrially relevant, yields valuable intellectual property, and provides a very high financial gearing.

The SDR Forum has a formal memorandum of understanding with Mobile VCE to allow collaboration between the two organizations.

Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF)
WWRF is a global organisation, which was founded in August 2001. It now has over 140 members from five continents, representing all sectors of the mobile communications industry and the research community. The objective of the WWRF is to formulate visions on strategic future research directions in the wireless field, among industry and academia, and to generate, identify, and promote research areas and technical trends for mobile and wireless system technologies.

The SDR Forum has a formal memorandum of understanding with WWRF to allow collaboration between the two organizations.

VME Industry Trade Association (VITA) Standards Organization (VSO)
VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of suppliers and users having a common market interest in critical embedded systems. Founded in 1984, VITA believes in and champions open system architectures as opposed to proprietary system architectures. VITA's activities are international in scope. The functions performed by VITA are technical, promotional and user related and are aimed at increasing the total market size, providing vendors with additional market exposure, and providing users with timely technical information. VITA has ANSI and IEC accreditation for the development of standards for embedded computers, including critical applications and harsh environments, to enable VITA to be the steward of VME technology.

The SDR Forum has a memorandum of understanding with VITA to allow collaboration between the two organizations on DigitalIF and Transceiver APIs.

Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC)
The NCOIC is a unique collaboration of premier leaders in the aerospace, defense, information technology, large-scale integrator and services industries. The Consortium works in tandem with customers from around the world, each with a specific mission, to provide a set of tools that enable the development of network centric capabilities and products.

The SDR Forum is a member of the NCOIC and has made the NCOIC an SDR Forum member to simplify collaboration between the two groups.

Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea (IEEK)
The mission of The Institute of Electronics of Korea, as articulated in the Articles of Association, is "to organize and conduct various activities and projects designed to promote the growth and expansion of academic information and technological advancement in the fields relating to electronics, information, and communication." The main areas of our activities and involvement are: domestic and international academic conventions, short-term training courses, seminars, special lectures, the publication of articles, society newsletters, books and other information materials, academic and technical research projects and the establishment of standardized measures.

The SDR Forum has a memorandum of understanding with the IEEK program to allow collaboration between the two organizations.

The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
The IEICE was established in May, 1917, mark its 85th anniversary in 2002. Being known internationally as one of the world's leading academic institutions in this area, the IEICE aims at the investigation and exchange of knowledge on the science and technology of electronics, information and communications, and contributes to the progress of technologies and to the development of industries. We started four Societies and one Group in April, 1995.

Presently, the Institute has more than 34,000 affiliated members. The Members of the Institute elect officers (President. Vice Presidents. Directors and Auditors) who administer the Institute. as well as more than 20 Council Members. 

The SDR Forum has a memorandum of understanding with the IEICE Technical Committee on Software Radio to allow collaboration between the two organizations.