USRP and GNURadio for prototyping radiofrequency communication algorithms
USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) [1] is a modular platform for radiofrequency circuits prototyping, whose schematics are freely available, running in the HF ( 30 MHz) to SHF (2.4 GHz) frequency ranges. Programming the USRP is achieved using opensource software using the GNURadio toolset [2].
Depending on how close to the hardware level the developer wants to work, programming is performed in Python scripting language, C++ or Verilog (from the highest abstraction layer to the lowest).
After presenting some general concepts on the hardware and some attractive though useful demonstration applications (radiofrequency spectrum analyzer, time-frequency analysis), we will show how we use this toolset as a versatile prototyping environment in our research activities. After briefly introducing the physical principles underlying the radiofrequency passive acoustic sensors developed by the time-frequency group of FEMTO-ST Institute in collaboration with the SENSeOR company [3], we will present some of the principles for probing these sensors following mechanisms close to those of RADARs, adapted to the specific working principes of our sensors. We will then demonstrate how these concepts were implemented in USRP, and illustrate that these algorithms work as expected with remonte temperature sensing thanks to these sensors.
[1] http://www.ettus.com/ [2] http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki [3] J.-M Friedt, G. Martin, S. Ballandras, "Wireless and Mobile Acoustic Sensor Interrogation for (Bio)Chemical Sensing and Industrial Control", 2008 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (Honolulu, USA, 18-21 May 2008), available at http://jmfriedt.free.fr/ifcs08.pdf
- Slides de la présentation / presentation slides