ni.com

Bridge RF Design and Test Applications with NI SDR Platforms

Jason Strydom – Application Engineer

National Instruments - Midrand

2 ni.com

The National Instruments Vision

“To do for test and measurement

what the spreadsheet did for financial analysis.”

Virtual Instrumentation

3 ni.com

VSAs & VSGs Switching Amplifiers & Attenuators

Power Meters

FPGA I/O & Co-processing

Multicore Processing

Optimized APIs

Cellular, Wireless, & GPS Test Toolkits

(802.11 a/b/g/n , GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, RFID, WiMAX, GPS, etc.)

Reference Architectures

Soft Front Panels

NI RF Test Platform

4 ni.com

The Next 30 Years: Expanding LabVIEW into System Design

Research/Modeling Design/Simulation Verification/Validation Manufacturing

Product Verification Design Verification

5 ni.com

Graphical System Design

The National Instruments Vision

Real-time Systems

Embedded Monitoring

Hardware-in-the-loop

Software Defined Radio

Test and Measurement

Automated Test

Data Acquisition

Reconfigurable

Instruments

Industrial and Embedded

Industrial Control (PAC)

Machine Control

Electronic Devices

“To do for embedded what the PC

did for the desktop.”

“To do for test and measurement

what the spreadsheet did

for financial analysis.”

6 ni.com

From Concept to Prototype … Rapidly!

Design Simulate Prototype

Graphical System Design Platform

• LabVIEW Graphical System Design offers one tool, integrated flow • Shorter learning curve • Easier system integration • Reduce the time to hardware … rapid prototyping!

7 ni.com

Software Defined RF

Software Defined Radio

• Low Cost

• Flexible

• Radio Quality

• Rapid Prototyping

Modular RF Instruments

• Calibrated

• Rugged

• Cabled

• Instrumentation

NI 5644R

VST NI 5791R

FlexRIO SDR

8 ni.com

Concurrent Design and Test

Design Test

System Design

Component Design Component Test

System Test

Implementation

Verification/Validation

NI 5644R

VST

NI 5791R

FlexRIO SDR

9 ni.com

What is a Software Define Radio?

Software Defined Radio (SDR) refers to the

technology wherein software modules running

on a generic hardware platform are used to

implement radio functions …..

10 ni.com

SDR Architecture

Baseband

Converters

Host Connection Determines Streaming Bandwidth Ex.

Gigabit E-net, PCIe

Multi-Processor Subsystem Real-time signal processor

Physical Layer (PHY)

ex FPGA, DSP

Host processor

Medium Access Control (MAC) – Rx/Tx control

ex. Host GPP, multi-core CPU

RF Front End General Purpose RF

Dual LOs

Contiguous Frequency Range

11 ni.com

NI FlexRIO Adapter Module

Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA

Socketed

CLIP

Socketed

CLIP

LabVIEW FPGA VI

DRAM

Memory

DRAM

Memory

PXI/PXIe Bus So

cket

ed C

LIP

CLIP CLIP CLIP

Adapter Module

…

12 ni.com

SDR Hardware Platforms

Features

• Frequency Range: 200 MHz to 4.4 GHz

• FPGA: Kintex -7

• Bandwidth: 100 & 200 MHz

• Host I/F: PXIe (~3.2 GB/s)

NI USRP

PXIe-7975R (FlexRIO) NI 579x (RF FAM)

Features

• Frequency Range: 50 MHz to 6 GHz

• FPGA: Host processing

• Bandwidth: 20 MHz bandwidth

• Host I/F: Gigabit Enet (~100 MB/s)

Coming Q4

13 ni.com

NI USRP Radio Prototyping Platform LabVIEW based Software Defined Radio

• Host-based processing simplifies signal processing

• Immediate access to real-world signals

• 20 MHz of real-time bandwidth make the solution available to a wide range of applications

• Flexible

• Easy to use

• Affordable

14 ni.com

NI USRP

1 Gigabit Ethernet Connectivity

Plug-and-play capability

Up to 25 MS/s baseband IQ

streaming

Tunable RF Transceiver

Front Ends Frequency Range

50 MHz – 2.2 GHz (NI-2920)

2.4 GHz & 5.5 GHz (NI-2921)

400 MHz – 4.4 GHz (NI-2922)

Signal Processing

and Synthesis NI LabVIEW to develop

and explore algorithms

NI Modulation Toolkit and

LabVIEW add-ons to

simulate or process live

signals

Applications

FM Radio

TV

GPS

GSM

Zigbee

Safety Radio

OFDM

Radar

Dynamic Spectrum Access

15 ni.com

Benefits of the NI USRP Platform

• User Experience

• Productivity

• Maintainability

• Documentation

• Technical Support

• Extendable 1 Year Warranty

• CE Certification

• International Sales

16 ni.com

NI USRP Applications

Academic | Government | Industry

• Rapid Prototyping

• Physical Layer Design

• Record and Playback

• GPS simulator

• Academic education

• Communications intelligence

• Surveillance

• Deployable radio

….. And much, much more !

Record & Playback

MIMO

Safety Radio

17 ni.com

BRIDGING DESIGN AND TEST

18 ni.com

RF System Design and Validation

• Rapidly prototype and test new standards

• Create repeatable real-world stimulus

• Characterize receiver performance

• FM Radio • GPS • and more…

19 ni.com

Low-cost RF Modulated Source

• More realistic with extended dynamic range

• PXI and USRP control within single LabVIEW VI

• Extendable to many applications

+ Test Signal

Interferer

NI PXI-5673 VSG

NI USRP

NI PXI-5695 Programmable

Attenuator

Combiner Output Signal to Test FM

Radio

Signal of Interest

Strong Interferer

USRP

PXI

20 ni.com

GPS Simulation & Test

Things to Simulate

• Poor signal strength • View of satellites obstructed • Position constantly changing

NI USRP-2920 Generates Signal

GPS toolkit Creates Signal in LabVIEW

GPS Receiver

GPS receiver behaves as if it see’s real satellites

Precision Clock (10 MHz OCXO)

21 ni.com

GPS Record & Playback

• Record and play back up to 20 MHz of bandwidth

• Repeatable testing of algorithms / devices on realistic dataset

• Supplement a PXI lab with low-cost playback at your desk

Re

co

rd

Pla

yb

ack

22 ni.com

RF / COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH

23 ni.com

MIMO Radio Prototyping

• Plug and play 2x2 MIMO

• Driver based synchronization

• Reference designs available

• Maximal Ratio Combining

• Alamouti Coding

2x2 MIMO - Alamouti Coding

24 ni.com

NI USRP Research Case Study: Physical Layer Prototyping

• Continuously monitoring multiple wifi channels

• Demodulation and descrambling of 802.11b beacon signals

• Identification of hotspots, tracking relative power levels

Carrier Detection

Frequency Offset

Estimation & Correction

Demodulation &

Descrambling

Interpret the frame for

SSID

Demodulate Descramble

Dr. Murat Torlak

802.11b SSID Decoding

25 ni.com

NI USRP Research Case Study:

Algorithm Research

Cleaning Up “Dirty RF”

Established a live, over-the-air communication OFDM link

• 1024 subcarriers

• 256-QAM modulation per subcarrier

• bit rate of about 1.4 Mbps on laptop

LabVIEW host-based VIs

• Imported m-file scripts

• Extensive use of Mathscript RT

• ~2 month timeframe • reducing project time by 2/3

26 ni.com

NI USRP Research Case Study:

NI USRP 8x8 MIMO Testbed

• Adaptable from 2x2 to 8x8

• Algorithm design in MathScript RT

• 128 subcarrier OFDM, 4 QAM, spatial diversity

• Independently clocked, phase coherent Tx & Rx

Dr. Robert Heath Director WNCG

University of Texas at Austin

MIMO Cable

USRP

Rx 1 USRP

Rx 2

MIMO Cable

USRP

Rx 3 USRP

Rx 4

MIMO Cable

USRP

Rx 5

USRP

Rx 6

MIMO Cable

USRP

Rx 7

USRP

Rx 8

PPS in

Ref in External

Clock

Network

Cable

Network

Cable

Network

Cable

Host

Computer

Transmit

Receive

MIMO Cable

USRP

TX 1 USRP

TX 2

MIMO Cable

USRP

TX 3 USRP

TX 4

MIMO Cable

USRP

TX 5

USRP

TX 6

MIMO Cable

USRP

TX 7

USRP

TX 8

Gigabit

Ethernet

Switch

External

Clock

27 ni.com

NI USRP Research Case Study:

Position Detection & Localization • Testing MUSIC direction finding

algorithm

• Rapid prototyping in LabVIEW with MathScript RT

• Synchronized up to12 USRP devices

• Reference provides continuous phase alignment compensation

Prof. Athanassios Manikas

Comm & Array Processing Chair

Imperial College, London

Calibration

Signal

USRP

RX 1

PPS

in

Ref in

External

Clock

Network

Cable

Network

Cable

Host

Computer

Gigabit

Ethernet

Switch

USRP

RX 2

USRP

RX 3

USRP

RX 4

USRP

TX

Direction Finding (uniform linear array)

28 ni.com

Research: Downloadable Reference Designs

8x8 MIMO-OFDM GPS Simulation

RF Record & Playback RF Direction Finding &

Localization

Tx

ni.com/usrp

29 ni.com

FM DEMOD - DEMO

30 ni.com

RF / COMMUNICATIONS EDUCATION & TRAINING

31 ni.com

Digital Communications Bundle

Key Benefits • Affordable • Accessible • NI Supported • TX & RX Real RF Signals • Scales to Research

Target Courses • Communication Systems • Digital & Wireless

Communications • Software Defined Radio (SDR)

Bundle Contents • Two NI USRP-2920 + Toolkits • MIMO Cable • Digital Comm Lab Manual

32 ni.com

Lab Ready| Packet Radio & OFDM

Communications Systems Labs

by Dr. Sachin Katti, Stanford

1 Source Coding

2 Packet Communication, Sync, and Channel Correction

3 Modulation

4 Demodulation

5 Design Challenge:

Packet based Transceiver

Digital Communications Labs

by Dr. Robert Heath, UT Austin

1 QPSK AWGN Simulator

2.1 Modulation /Demodulation

2.2 Pulse Shaping

3 Energy Detection

4 Equalization

5 Frame Detection

6 Intro to OFDM

7 Frequency Correction & Sync

8 OFDM Channel Coding

(FREE: ni.com/courseware) (Ships in Bundle)

ni.com

Awesome class! I really enjoyed the lectures, where

I learned a lot, and the labs were really cool because

we got to use the hardware.

… I am glad that I took this class!

“

Source: Stanford EE 49: Teaching Evaluations (Spring Quarter 2011)

NI USRP at Stanford University

“ Student Course Feedback:

34 ni.com

NI USRP at Stanford University

…with the NI USRP, we’re able to

provide exposure in introductory

courses for the first time.

“ “

Dr. Sachin Katti

[ Electrical & Computer Engineering]

Students rated the class 4.94/5.0,

likely making it one of the highest

ratings among all classes in the

School of Engineering at Stanford.

“ “

35 ni.com

RF / COMMUNICATIONS ADVANCED RESEARCH

36 ni.com

NI Leading the Way to 5G Wireless

37 ni.com

NI and TU Dresden Collaborate on 5G Wireless

• 5G Lab and Test Bed

• 5G PHY exploration and prototyping

• Using LabVIEW Graphical System Design

Dr. Gerhard Fettweis

38 ni.com

Targets Tools

SDR S/W Development Challenge

• SDR development requires multiple S/W tools

• Parallel processing increases system complexity

• S/W tools don’t address system design

Long learning curves Limited reuse Need for “specialists”

Increased costs Increased time-to-result

Math (.m file script)

Simulation (Hybrid)

Host Control (C, C++, .NET)

DSP (Fxd pt C, Assembly)

User Interface (HTML) H/W Driver (C, Assembly)

System Debug FPGAs Multicore

Processors FPGA (VHDL, Verilog)

39 ni.com

FPGAs

Multicore

Processors

Task Parallelism Data Parallelism Pipelining

Parallel Programming with LabVIEW

40 ni.com

NI RF 6 GHz

P2P

FPGA

RIO Host

Embedded, PC

VST NI FlexRIO

USRP for

LabVIEW

NI RF

Generator, RF

Analyzer

NI Platforms for RF/Communications

Graphical System Design Platform

41 ni.com

Summary

• LabVIEW offers a graphical approach, shortening the design process, and tight hardware/software integration that allows for seamless transition from design to test • NI provides a full spectrum of RF / Communications solutions: RF Test, Research and Education • LabVIEW and NI USRP is an accessible, easy-to-use software defined radio platform

ni.com National Instruments