Software Defined Radios are the main technology used currently in wireless communication systems. The series of sessions provides different levels of expertise to get familiarized with the technology or get deeper insight on its use. These sessions are open to any technical audience, such as students, professionals, and IEEE members in the community. Please look at the agenda to get the scope of each session and decide if you are only interested in specific sessions (Fundamentals are sessions 1 or 3, Intermediate is Session 2, or Advanced Sessions 4 and 5).
Speaker(s): , Neel Pandeya
Agenda:
This session will provide attendees with a brief and practical introduction to RF and wireless communications and software defined radio (SDR). We will explore the background of RF and wireless communications, and introduce fundamental concepts. We will then explore the motivations and architectures for SDR radios, and then specifically examine the USRP radio, and see how to program and operate it. Several demonstrations will be shown, and there will be a hands-on exercise for attendees. Attendees should gain a practical basic understanding of RF and wireless communications, what SDR radios are and how to operate and program them, and how to apply them for use in various wireless applications. This session is open to both students and working industry professionals. No prior experience with RF or SDR is required.
This session provides an overview of the RFNoC FPGA framework for the USRP radios, including a discussion on its design and capabilities, several live demonstrations, and a walk-through of implementing a new user-defined RFNoC block and integrating it into both UHD and GNU Radio. The RFNoC (RF Network-on-Chip) framework is the FPGA architecture used in USRP devices. The RFNoC framework enables users to program the USRP FPGA, and facilitates the integration of custom FPGA-based algorithms into the signal processing chain of the USRP radio. Users can create modular, FPGA-accelerated SDR applications by chaining multiple RFNoC Blocks together and integrating them into both C++ and Python programs using the UHD API, and into GNU Radio flowgraphs. Attendees should gain a practical understanding of how to use the RFNoC framework to implement custom FPGA processing on the USRP radio platform.
This session is a repeat of Session 1.
This session will provide attendees with a thorough, practical, and hands-on introduction to the USRP SDR hardware and the open-source software toolchain (Linux, C++, Python, UHD, and GNU Radio). Attendees will have access to laptop computers and USRP radios, and will perform various classroom activities. The topics will include: an overview of the hardware and the architecture of the USRP software-defined radios; how to get started using a new USRP device; installing the UHD driver and GNU Radio framework; using the UHD device driver; programming the USRP from C++ using the UHD API; using GNU Radio with the USRP; creating and running flowgraphs from both GRC and Python; managing USRP FPGA images; viewing packetized I/Q data with Wireshark; debugging common technical problems and network configuration problems; flow-control errors and how to mitigate them; various practical RF issues; high-rate networking and I/Q data streaming; host system performance tuning; USRP device recovery; various operational best-practices; and more. Several demos and examples will be shown, such as performing real-time spectrum monitoring, transmitting pre-recorded waveforms, implementing an FM transmitter and receiver. Several additional complementary open-source tools will also be discussed, such as GQRX, Fosphor, Inspectrum, and several GNU Radio Out-of-Tree (OOT) modules. We will explore several real-time demonstrations of wireless systems running on the USRP, such as a record-and-playback system, FM transmitter and receiver, several spectrum monitoring and analysis tools, and a spectrum-painting tool. Attendees should have a basic understanding of using a Linux system, the Linux command line, and wireless communications, as well as a basic familiarity with C++ and Python programming. Attendees should gain a solid foundation and practical understanding of how to configure, operate, and program the USRP to implement a wide range of wireless systems and wireless applications.
This tutorial provides a detailed overview of how to implement a 3GPP-compliant 5G/NR testbed using the USRP radio with the open-source software stacks, srsRAN from Software Radio Systems (SRS), and OpenAirInterface (OAI) from Eurecom, for research, development, and prototyping. We examine both the base station (gNB) side, as well as the handset (UE) side. We examine three implementations for the UE: an emulated software UE; a commercial handset; and a stand-alone modem module. We discuss in detail how to install, configure, and operate the hardware and software for the base station side and the handset side, as well as for the core network, in order to create a fully functional 5G network. We discuss various aspects of radio and network planning and implementation, discuss network operation monitoring, and discuss performance and throughput measurements. We show a video of a demonstration of the real-time operation of a 5G network. Attendees should gain a practical understanding of how to use USRP devices to implement 5G/NR wireless networks.
Room: ENGR A325, Bldg: Engineering Building, 500 W University, El Paso, Texas, United States, 79968