Speech:Summer 2015 GNU Radio


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Introduction
With the exponential growth in the ways and means by which people need to communicate, - data communications, voice communications, video communications, broadcast messaging, command and control communications, emergency response communications, etc. - modifying radio devices easily and cost-effectively has become business critical. Software defined radio (SDR) technology brings the flexibility, cost efficiency and power to drive communications forward, with wide-reaching benefits realized by service providers and product developers through to end users. [Wireless Innovation Forum, http://www.wirelessinnovation.org]

Software Defined Radio
A number of definitions can be found to describe Software Defined Radio, also known as Software Radio or SDR. The Wireless Innovation Forum, working in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) P1900.1 group, has worked to establish a definition of SDR that provides consistency and a clear overview of the technology and its associated benefits. Simply put, Software Defined Radio is defined as: "Radio in which some or all of the physical layer functions are software defined."



Software Defined Radios (SDRs) are driving the integration of digital signal processing (DSP) and radio frequency (RF) capabilities. This integration allows the software to dynamically control communications parameters, such as the frequency band used, filtering, modulation type, data rates and frequency hopping schemes. SDR technology can be seen in wireless devices used for military and civil government applications or commercial network deployments. Compared to traditional RF transceiver technologies, SDR is advantageous because it offers increased flexibility. SDR provides the ability to reconfigure key system performance and functions on the fly. Wireless Innovation Forum.

A software-defined radio (SDR) is a wireless communication system whose functionality can be configured using software or programmable hardware. Traditional radio transmitters and receivers can usually send and receive a single type of signal. Software-defined radios are more versatile. Using different software configurations, SDR hardware can communicate at different frequencies using multiple wireless standards such as Bluetooth, FM radio, Wi-Fi, GPS, and LTE technology.

SDRs typically consist of an RF front end (transmitter or receiver) with an analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog converter. A general-purpose computer or reconfigurable hardware (e.g., FPGA, DSP, ASIC) is used with the SDR for baseband signal processing.MathWorks

USRP B200
USRP B200 SDR Kit - Single Channel Transceiver (70 MHz - 6GHz)

Features:
 * The first fully integrated USRP device with continuous RF coverage from 70 MHz –6 GHz
 * Full duplex operation with up to 56 MHz of real time bandwidth (61.44MS/s quadrature)
 * Fast and convenient bus-powered connectivity using SuperSpeed USB 3.0
 * GNURadio and OpenBTS support through the open-source USRP Hardware Driver™ (UHD)
 * Open and reconfigurable Spartan 6 XC6SLX75 FPGA with free Xilinx tools (for advanced users)
 * Early access prototyping platform for the Analog Devices AD9361 RFIC, a fully integrated direct conversion transceiver with mixed signal baseband

Overview:

The USRP B200 provides a fully integrated, single board, Universal Software Radio Peripheral platform with continuous frequency coverage from 70 MHz –6 GHz. Designed for low-cost experimentation, it combines a fully integrated direct conversion transceiver providing up to 56MHz of real-time bandwidth, an open and reprogrammable Spartan6 FPGA, and fast and convenient bus-powered SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity. Full support for the UHD (USRP Hardware Driver) software allows you to immediately begin developing with GNU Radio, prototype your own GSM base station with OpenBTS, and seamlessly transition code from the B200 to higher performance, industry ready USRP platforms.

B200 System Architecture:

The integrated RF frontend on the USRP B200 is designed with the new Analog Devices AD9361, a single chip direct conversion transceiver and digital baseband processor, capable of streaming up to 56 MHz of real-time RF bandwidth. The B200 utilizes one signal chain of the AD9361 allowing it to be bus powered and reducing software and hardware design complexity. Onboard signal processing and control of the AD9361 is performed by a Spartan6 XC6SLX75 FPGA connected to a host PC using SuperSpeed USB 3.0. The USRP B200 real time system throughput is benchmarked at 61.44MS/s quadrature providing the full 56 MHz of instantaneous RF bandwidth to the host PC for additional processing using GNURadio SDR design environment. Specification

GNU Radio


GNU Radio is a free software development toolkit that provides the signal processing runtime and processing blocks to implement software radios using readily-available, low-cost external RF hardware and commodity processors. It is widely used in hobbyist, academic and commercial environments to support wireless communications research as well as to implement real-world radio systems.

GNU Radio applications are primarily written using the Python programming language, while the supplied, performance-critical signal processing path is implemented in C++ using processor floating point extensions where available. Thus, the developer is able to implement real-time, high-throughput radio systems in a simple-to-use, rapid-application-development environment.