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RF and Microwave Test

and Design Roadshow

5 Locations across

Australia and New Zealand

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Advanced PXI Technologies Signal Recording, FPGA’s, and Synchronization

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Outline

• Introduction to the PXI Architecture

• PXI Data Streaming (Record and Playback)

• FPGA Processing

• Timing and Synchronization (MIMO)

Multicore Processors PCI Express FPGAs Data Converters

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PXI Overview: Software Experience

LabVIEW Instrument Driver Soft-Front Panels

PXI controller

is a computer

Each module is

an instrument

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PXI Overview: System Details

PXI Backplane handles data transfer,

timing, synchronization, and triggering

Windows,

Linux, or

RTOS

Up to 1500

available PXI

modules

PXI Chassis handles cooling,

power, and system monitoring

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1 2 3

5605 High Path

5605 Low Path <3.6G

5653

RF In

5622

ADC DDC/FFT

x2

Pre amp

Cal Tone

LPF @ 3.6G BPF 4.6G BPF @ 612.5M

Doubler

Preselector

LPF

Filter Bank

4201.0 MHz to 8101.0 MHz 4050.50 MHz to 7300.50 MHz

4601.0 MHz to 8201.0 MHz 4GHz 800 MHz

800 MHz

300 kHz

Cal Tone

5 MHz

Example: PXIe-5665

1

2

2

3 1. NI PXIe-5622 Digitizer

2. NI PXIe-5605 Downconverter

3. NI PXIe-5653 Synthesizer

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PXI Timing and Synchronization

01972 PXI Trigger.jpg

Each module can share sample clocks and start triggers

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PXIe Hybrid Slot PXIe Slot PXIe System Timing Slot

6 7 9 8

x4 x4 x4 x4

11

12

13

10

x4 x4 x4 x4

2 3 5 4

x4 x4 x4 x4

PCIe to PCI

PCIe Switch

PXI Express

Slot 1

15

14

16

17

x4 x4 x4 x4 x4

18

PCIe to PCI

x4

x4

x4

x4

x4 PCIe Links

Slot Color Legend

PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch

PXI Data Transfer Data can be transferred to other

modules or controller to PCI express

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PCIe: Best Bandwidth Versus Latency

Decreasing (Improving) Latency

Incre

asi

ng (I

mp

rovin

g) B

an

dw

idth

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

1 10 100 1,000 10,000 0.1

Approximate Latency (μs)

Max B

an

dw

idth

(M

B/s

)

USB 1.1

Fast Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet

GPIB (488.1)

GPIB (HS 488)

IEEE 1394a

USB 2.0

VME/VXI

PCI/PXI

PCI Express/ PXI Express (x4)

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PCI Express Link Generation Theoretical

Unidirectional Transfer Rates

Theoretical Bidirectional

Transfer Rates

x4 Gen 1 1 GB/s 1 GB/s x2

x16 Gen 1 4 GB/s 4 GB/s x2

x4 Gen 2 2 GB/s 2 GB/s x2

x16 Gen 2 8 GB/s 8GB/s x2

PCI Express Data Transfer Rates

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High-Speed data streaming enables two unique applications.

RF Record and Playback FPGA Co-processing

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RF Record and Playback

• Unique to PXI because of high-throughput data-streaming

• Applications include spectrum monitoring, and wireless receiver test

• Utilize high-throughput RAID storage volumes

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800 MB/s

Streaming to/from

Controller Memory Can sustain 7 unidirectional streams

at 800 MB/s for a total of 5.6GB/s

700 MB/s

Streaming to/from Disk Can sustain 4 streams at 700

MB/s for 2.8GB/s/direction

(5.6GB/s total system)

Peer-to-Peer Streaming Can sustain 8 streams at 700

MB/s for 5.6GB/s/direction

(11.2GB/s total system)

700 MB/s

Maximum Peer-to-Peer Streaming Rates

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RF Recording Architecture

Vector Signal

Analyzer

Antenna

Transmitter

LNA

Amplifier Bandpass

Filter

Disk Array

OR

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How Much Data Can One Store?

• PXIe-5665 with HDD-8265

• 50 MHz of BW (62.5 MS/s = 250 MB/s)

• HDD-8265 has up to 24 TB of storage

• 24 TB / 25 MB/s ≈ 1 Million seconds

• 1 Million seconds ≈ 13.5 days

• What do you do with the data?

• Analyze the signal content

o Demodulate the signal (often blindly)

o Observe spectral content

• Play it back with an RF vector signal generator

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Maximize Data Storage with RAID

“Redundant array of independent drives” is a general term for mass storage schemes that split or replicate data across multiple hard drives.

RAID-0 Controller

(Striped)

0123 | 4567

0

1

2

3

5

6

7

4 RAID-0 Striping without redundancy

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Alternative RAID Configurations

RAID-1 Controller

(Mirrored)

012 | 456

RAID-5 Controller

Striped/Parity

012 | 456

0

1

2

A

B

4

5

6

100% redundancy but without speed increase.

Distributed parity that can tolerate up to 1 disk failure.

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• Playback up to 12 TB of data with NI HDD-8265 12-Drive RAID-0 array

NI PXIe-5673E Playback From Disk

• 85 MHz to 6.6 GHz frequency range

• 100 MHz BW (125 MS/s, 500 MB/s)

• Playback full BW for 7+ days

RF Playback From Disk

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Monitoring Electromagnetic Spectrum

Control of EMS is critical in Government, Commercial and Defense

• Government • Regulation of Spectrum

• Surveillance for Terrorist Activity

• Commercial • Network health

• Interference detection

and identification

• Defense • Surveillance

• Threat targeting

• Jamming / Deception

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Case Study: GNSS Record and Playback

“Using PXI RF record and playback tools from National Instruments, we were able to improve our GNSS receiver testing methods and save significant costs of more extensive field testing.” Stephen Bateman, Vice President of Engineering

The Challenge Conducting field tests and simulations to produce a truly repeatable Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal with real-world signal impairments.

The Solution Adopting National Instruments PXI RF signal generators, analyzers, and waveform storage media to create our own GNSS record and playback system based on PXI and NI LabVIEW software.

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FPGA Co-Processing

RF Record and Playback FPGA Co-processing

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• Unique to PXI because of peer-to-peer streaming

• Real-time signal processing, SDR, and spectrum monitoring

• Utilizes LabVIEW FPGA for greater user productivity

FPGA Co-Processing

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NI FlexRIO Peer-to-Peer Architecture

PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch

• >800 MB/s one way

• >700 MB/s both ways

• ~10 µs latency

• Up to 16 streams per FPGA

NI PXIe-1075

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Why Use an FPGA?...Performance!

CPU

Performance

(GFLOPs)

FPGA

Performance

(GMACs)

1997 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2009 1999

5

50

500

5,000

5

50

500

5,000

FPGAs

CPUs

2011

2.376

TMACS

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• Software Programmable with

LabVIEW FPGA

• Co-processing available with Xilinx

Virtex-5 SXT-Series FPGA’s

• Up to 800 MB/s peer-to-peer

streaming from/to other modules

• Wide range of pre-existing

wireless/comm IP

Introduction to NI FPGA Technology

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P2P Software

Host VI

FPGA #1 (Writer)

FPGA #2 (Reader)

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Example Application: Frequency Domain Trigger

P2P Stream

NI-RFSA Data

PXI Trigger

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Programming Options for LabVIEW FPGA

• LabVIEW FPGA

• NI IPNet

• LabVIEW FPGA RF Communications Library

• LabVIEW FPGA IP Integration Node

• Existing HDL (CLIP Node)

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IPNet – LabVIEW FPGA Functions and Example IP

http://www.ni.com/ipnet

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Rx

Rx

In-line Processing

In-line Signal Processing Generic View

Data Storage

System Signals (GPS timing,

Triggers, GPIO, etc)

Tx

Tx

VSAs & VSGs

High Speed DIO Baseband

FlexRIO FAMs

Data Storage

System Signals (Triggers, GPIO, etc)

VSAs & VSGs

High Speed DIO Baseband

FlexRIO FAMs

LabVIEW

Real-Time

LabVIEW

Desktop

LabVIEW

FPGA

LabVIEW

MPU/MCU

• Scan Lists • Triggering • Energy Detection • Filtering

• Signal Classification

• DDC • Channelization • Decimation

• Pulse Decoding • Demodulation • Channel Decoding • Source Decoding

Rx Signal Processing

• Channel Emulation • Spoofing • Jamming

• Source Coding • Channel Coding • Modulation

• Resampling • DUC

Tx Signal Processing

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Rx

Rx

Data Storage

Wideband Processing (Search and Detect) • Energy Detection • FFTs • Triggering • DDCs / Channel

Filters

In-line Processing

In-line Signal Processing SIGINT / Spectrum Monitoring System

GPS

Narrowband Processing (Classify and ID) • Signal Classification • Direction Finding

Software Defined Radio (Decode) • Signal Decoding • Demodulation • Channel decoding • Source decoding

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Advanced Synchronization Phase-Coherent RF Measurements

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Phase Coherent RF Test

Phase-Coherent Four-Channel PXIe-5663 VSA

Phase-Coherent Two-Channel PXIe-5673 VSG

• Phase-coherence achieved through shared LO

• System expandable to 4x4 and beyond

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Traditional VSA Architecture

• Traditional VSAs use 3-stage superheterodyne architecture

• Can share 10 MHz reference – not the local oscillators (LO_1, etc.)

RF

Clk10

ADC

LO_1 LO_2 LO_3

NI PXI-5661

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Synchronizing Traditional VSAs

RF

Clk10

ADC

LO_1 LO_2 LO_3

RF

Clk10

ADC

LO_1 LO_2 LO_3

Does this Work? How do I even know?

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÷ N

10 MHz

Reference

∆φ LO1

ADC DDC

RF1

I1

Q1

VCO

Phase

Detector Filter

Frequency Divider

LO2

ADC DDC

RF2

I2

Q2

÷ N

∆φ

VCO

Phase

Detector Filter

Frequency Divider

Traditional Synchronization Method

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LO1

ADC DDC

LO2

ADC DDC

RF1

RF2

I1

Q1

I2

Q2

÷ N

10 MHz

Reference

∆φ

VCO

Phase

Detector Filter

Frequency Divider

Better Synchronization through Modularity

Use of a common local oscillator for synchronization improves measurement quality

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Channel-to-Channel Phase Accuracy

STDEV = 0.045°

STDEV = 0.37°

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Phase Coherent RF Test

Phase-Coherent Four-Channel PXIe-5663 VSA

Phase-Coherent Two-Channel PXIe-5673 VSG

• PXI VSA’s achieve phase-coherence through shared LO

• System expandable to 4x4 and beyond

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Local Oscillator

Downconverters

Shared LO

Shared ADC Clock

Four-Channel Phase-Coherent Acquisition

Digitizers

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Upconverters

Shared LO

AWGs Local Oscillator

Shared DAC Clock

Two-Channel Synchronized Generation

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Shared Reference vs. Shared LO

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Channel-to-Channel Phase Accuracy

STDEV = 0.045°

STDEV = 0.37°

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6-Channel Phase-Coherent Record

50 MHz BW Each Channel, Total of 1.5 GB/s Streamed to Disk

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3 Ch Phase-Coherent Playback Setup

100 MHz BW Each Channel, Total of 1.5 GB/s Streamed From Disk

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Summary

• PXI incorporates a wide range of technologies

• High-speed PCI express data bus

• Muliti-core CPU’s and FPGA’s

• Built-in timing and synchronization

• PXI enables a wide range of applications

• Record and playback

• Peer-to-peer streaming

• Phase-coherent measurements