Universal Software Radio Peripheral
The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) products are computer-hosted software radios. They are designed and sold by Ettus Research, LLC and its parent company, National Instruments. The USRP product family is intended to be a comparatively inexpensive hardware platform for software radio, and is commonly used by research labs, universities, and hobbyists[1]. USRPs connect to a host computer through a high-speed USB or Gigabit Ethernet link, which the host-based software uses to control the USRP hardware and transmit/receive data.
The USRP family was designed for accessibility, and much of the products are open source. The board schematics for the USRP family hardware are freely available for download[2]; all USRP products are controlled with the open source UHD driver[3]. USRPs are commonly used with the GNU Radio software suite to create complex software-defined radio systems.
The USRP family was developed by a team led by Matt Ettus.
Technical details
USRP1
The USRP1 consists of:
B100
The B100, introduced in October of 2011, replaces the USRP as the basic Software Defined Radio offering from Ettus Research. The features of the B100 are:
- USB 2.0 interface
- Xilinx Spartan 3A-1400 FPGA
- Compatibility with our entire daughterboard family
- Fully supported by UHD drivers
- Dual 64 MS/s 12-bit ADCs
- Dual 128 MS/s 14-bit DACs
- Onboard TCXO for precise frequency control
- 10 MHz and 1 PPS inputs for external references
- Flexible clocking from 10 MHz to 64 MHz
- 8 MHz of RF bandwidth with 16 bit samples
- 16 MHz of RF bandwidth with 8 bit samples
USRP2
The USRP2 was developed after the USRP and was first made available in September 2008. It has reached end of life and has been replaced by the USRP N200 and USRP N210. The USRP2 was not intended to replace the original USRP, which continued to be sold in parallel to the USRP2.
The USRP2 contains[4]:
- A Xilinx Spartan 3-2000 FPGA
- Gigabit Ethernet interface
- Two 100 MS/s, 14-bit, analog-to-digital converters. LTC2284, 72.4dB SNR and 85dB SFDR for signals at the Nyquist frequency.
- Two 400 MS/s, 16-bit, digital-to-analog converters. AD9777. 160 MSPS w/o interpolation, up to 400 MSPS with 8x interpolation.
- SD card reader.
USRP N200 and USRP N210
The USRP N200 and USRP N210 replace the USRP2 and were first made available in November 2010. The units improve on the successful USRP2, offering higher performance and increased flexibility. Like the USRP2, the units connect to a host PC through a Gigabit Ethernet link enabling transfer of up to 50 MHz RF bandwidth to / and from the device. Unlike the USRP2, the configuration and firmware are stored in onboard Flash to allow for easy programming over the network.
E1xx Series
The E1xx Series are Software Defined Radios designed for embedded applications. The current devices available in this series are the E100 and E110.
E100
- Designed for embedded applications. Runs a full distribution of Linux.
- 720 MHz OMAP3 (ARM_Cortex-A8 processor & TI C64x+ DSP)
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB microSD Card
- 100 Mbit Ethernet connectivity
- Motherboard has one RTX daughterboard slot (1 RX + 1 TX connectors)
- Onboard FPGA processing
- FPGA: Xilinx Spartan XC3SD1800A
- ADCs: 12-bits 64 MS/s
- DACs: 14-bits 128 MS/s
- TCXO Frequency Reference (~2.5ppm)
- Flexible clocking from 10 MHz to 64 MHz
E110
The E110 was released in October, 2011.
- Designed for embedded applications. Runs a full distribution of Linux.
- 720 MHz OMAP3 (ARM_Cortex-A8 processor & TI C64x+ DSP)
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB microSD Card
- 100 Mbit Ethernet connectivity
- Motherboard has one RTX daughterboard slot (1 RX + 1 TX connectors)
- Onboard FPGA processing
- FPGA: Xilinx Spartan XC3SD3400A
- ADCs: 12-bits 64 MS/s
- DACs: 14-bits 128 MS/s
- TCXO Frequency Reference (~2.5ppm)
- Flexible clocking from 10 MHz to 64 MHz
USRP family Daughterboard Modules
The USRP family features a modular architecture with interchangeable daughterboard modules that serve as the RF front end. Several classes of daughterboard modules exist: Receivers, Transmitters and Transceivers.
- Transmitter daughterboard modules can modulate an output signal to a higher frequency.
- Receiver daughterboard modules can acquire an RF signal and convert it to baseband.
- Transceiver daughterboard modules combine the functionality of a Transmitter and Receiver.
Receivers only support RX (receiving) and consume only one RX port:
- BasicRX, 1–250 MHz Receiver, for use with external RF hardware.
- LFRX, DC to 30 MHz Receiver
- TVRX, 50 MHz to 870 MHz Receiver
- DBSRX, 800 MHz to 2.4 GHz Receiver
- BURX,[5] 300 MHz to 4 GHz Receiver
Transmitters only support TX and consume one TX port:
- BasicTX, 1–250 MHz Transmitter, for use with external RF hardware.
- LFTX, DC to 30 MHz Transmitter.
Transceivers[6] are both TX and RX and consume 2 ports (all come with 70dB AGC unless specified otherwise):
- SBX, 400 MHz–4.4 GHz Transceiver, 100 mW output.
- WBX, 50 MHz–2.2 GHz Transceiver, 100 mW output.
- RFX400, 400–500 MHz Transceiver, 100+mW output, 45dB AGC. Can be changed to cover 200 MHz up to 800 MHz with a hardware mod.
- RFX900, 800–1000 MHz Transceiver, 200+mW output (can be changed into a RFX1800 with basic soldering and flash update).
- RFX1200, 1150–1450 MHz Transceiver, 200+mW output.
- RFX1800, 1.5–2.1 GHz Transceiver, 100+mW output (can be changed into a RFX900 with a flash update).
- RFX2200, 2.0–2.4 GHz Transceiver, 100+mW output.[7]
- RFX2400, 2.3–2.9 GHz Transceiver, 20+mW output (can be changed into a RFX1200 with basic soldering and flash update).
- XCVR2450, Dual-band Transceiver, 100+mW output at 2.4–2.5 GHz and 50+mW output 4.9–5.85 GHz.
Applications
The USRP platform has been used as:
References
External links