RF and Microwave Test and Design Roadshow 5 Locations across Australia and New Zealand

RF and Microwave Test and Design Roadshow 5 Locations across Australia and New Zealand

Advanced PXI Technologies Signal Recording, FPGA s, and Synchronization

Outline Introduction to the PXI Architecture PXI Data Streaming (Record and Playback) FPGA Processing Timing and Synchronization (MIMO) PCI Express Multicore Processors FPGAs Data Converters 3

PXI Overview: Software Experience LabVIEW Instrument Driver Soft-Front Panels PXI controller is a computer Each module is an instrument 4

PXI Overview: System Details PXI Backplane handles data transfer, timing, synchronization, and triggering PXI Chassis handles cooling, power, and system monitoring Windows, Linux, or RTOS Up to 1500 available PXI modules 5

Example: PXIe-5665 2 Pre amp 5605 Low Path <3.6G 1 2 3 LPF @ 3.6G BPF 4.6G BPF @ 612.5M Cal Tone 4601.0 MHz to 8201.0 MHz 4GHz 800 MHz RF In 3 Doubler x 2 5653 5605 High Path 800 MHz 1. NI PXIe-5622 Digitizer 2. NI PXIe-5605 Downconverter 3. NI PXIe-5653 Synthesizer 2 4201.0 MHz to 8101.0 MHz 4050.50 MHz to 7300.50 MHz 300 khz 1 Preselector Filter Bank ADC DDC /FFT Cal Tone LPF 5 MHz 5622 6

PXI Timing and Synchronization 01972 PXI Trigger.jpg Each module can share sample clocks and start triggers 7

PXI Data Transfer x4 PCIe Links Data can be transferred to other modules or controller to PCI express PXI Express Slot 1 x4 x4 x4 x4 PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 PCIe to PCI PCIe to PCI Slot Color Legend PXIe Hybrid Slot PXIe Slot PXIe System Timing Slot 8

Increasing (Improving) Bandwidth Max Bandwidth (MB/s) PCIe: Best Bandwidth Versus Latency 10,000 1,000 PCI Express/ PXI Express (x4) 100 Gigabit Ethernet USB 2.0 IEEE 1394a PCI/PXI VME/VXI 10 Fast Ethernet GPIB (HS 488) USB 1.1 GPIB (488.1) 1 10,000 1,000 100 10 1 0.1 Approximate Latency (μs) Decreasing (Improving) Latency 9

PCI Express Data Transfer Rates 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 10 10

High-Speed data streaming enables two unique applications. RF Record and Playback FPGA Co-processing 12

RF Record and Playback Unique to PXI because of high-throughput datastreaming Applications include spectrum monitoring, and wireless receiver test Utilize high-throughput RAID storage volumes 13

Maximum Peer-to-Peer Streaming Rates 800 MB/s 700 MB/s 700 MB/s Streaming to/from Controller Memory Can sustain 7 unidirectional streams at 800 MB/s for a total of 5.6GB/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)

RF Recording Architecture Antenna Amplifier Bandpass Filter LNA Vector Signal Analyzer Disk Array OR Transmitter 15

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 17

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 Striping without redundancy 0123 4567 RAID-0 Controller (Striped) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 18

Alternative RAID Configurations 012 456 RAID-1 Controller (Mirrored) 100% redundancy but without speed increase. 012 456 RAID-5 Controller Striped/Parity Distributed parity that can tolerate up to 1 disk failure. 0 1 2 A B 4 5 6 19

RF Playback From Disk 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 22

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 23

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. 24

FPGA Co-Processing RF Record and Playback FPGA Co-processing 25

FPGA Co-Processing Unique to PXI because of peer-to-peer streaming Real-time signal processing, SDR, and spectrum monitoring Utilizes LabVIEW FPGA for greater user productivity 26

NI FlexRIO Peer-to-Peer Architecture >800 MB/s one way >700 MB/s both ways ~10 µs latency Up to 16 streams per FPGA NI PXIe-1075 PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch PCIe Switch 27

Why Use an FPGA?...Performance! 5,000 5,000 500 2.376 TMACS 500 FPGA Performance (GMACs) FPGAs 50 CPUs 50 CPU Performance (GFLOPs) 5 1997 1999 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2009 2011 5 28

Introduction to NI FPGA Technology 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 31

P2P Software FPGA #1 (Writer) Host VI FPGA #2 (Reader) 33

Example Application: Frequency Domain Trigger NI-RFSA Data PXI Trigger P2P Stream 34

Programming Options for LabVIEW FPGA LabVIEW FPGA NI IPNet LabVIEW FPGA RF Communications Library LabVIEW FPGA IP Integration Node Existing HDL (CLIP Node) 35

IPNet LabVIEW FPGA Functions and Example IP http://www./ipnet 36

In-line Signal Processing Generic View In-line Processing Rx Rx Scan Lists Triggering Energy Detection Filtering Rx Signal Processing Signal Classification DDC Channelization Decimation Pulse Decoding Demodulation Channel Decoding Source Decoding Data Storage System Signals (Triggers, GPIO, etc) System Signals (GPS timing, Triggers, GPIO, etc) Data Storage Channel Emulation Spoofing Jamming Tx Signal Processing Source Coding Channel Coding Modulation Resampling DUC Tx Tx VSAs & VSGs FlexRIO FAMs LabVIEW LabVIEW LabVIEW LabVIEW VSAs & VSGs FlexRIO FAMs Desktop Real-Time FPGA MPU/MCU Baseband High Speed DIO Baseband High Speed DIO 37

In-line Signal Processing SIGINT / Spectrum Monitoring System In-line Processing Rx Rx GPS Wideband Processing (Search and Detect) Energy Detection FFTs Triggering DDCs / Channel Filters Narrowband Processing (Classify and ID) Signal Classification Direction Finding Software Defined Radio (Decode) Signal Decoding Demodulation Channel decoding Source decoding Data Storage 38

Advanced Synchronization Phase-Coherent RF Measurements

Phase Coherent RF Test Phase-coherence achieved through shared LO System expandable to 4x4 and beyond Phase-Coherent Four- Channel PXIe-5663 VSA Phase-Coherent Two- Channel PXIe-5673 VSG 47

Traditional VSA Architecture Traditional VSAs use 3-stage superheterodyne architecture Can share 10 MHz reference not the local oscillators (LO_1, etc.) RF ADC LO_1 LO_2 LO_3 Clk10 NI PXI-5661 48

Synchronizing Traditional VSAs RF ADC Clk10 RF LO_1 LO_2 LO_3 Does this Work? How do I even know? ADC LO_1 LO_2 LO_3 Clk10 49

Traditional Synchronization Method 10 MHz Reference Phase Detector Filter VCO RF 1 I 1 φ LO 1 ADC DDC Q 1 N Frequency Divider Phase Detector Filter VCO RF 2 I 2 φ N LO 2 ADC DDC Q 2 Frequency Divider 50

Better Synchronization through Modularity RF 1 LO 1 ADC DDC I 1 10 MHz Reference Phase Detector Filter VCO Q 1 φ RF 2 N Frequency Divider LO 2 ADC DDC I 2 Q 2 Use of a common local oscillator for synchronization improves measurement quality 51

Channel-to-Channel Phase Accuracy STDEV = 0.37 STDEV = 0.045 52

Phase Coherent RF Test PXI VSA s achieve phase-coherence through shared LO System expandable to 4x4 and beyond Phase-Coherent Four- Channel PXIe-5663 VSA Phase-Coherent Two- Channel PXIe-5673 VSG 53

Four-Channel Phase-Coherent Acquisition Local Oscillator Downconvert ers Shared LO Shared ADC Clock Digitizers 54

Two-Channel Synchronized Generation Upconverters Shared DAC Clock Shared LO AWGs Local Oscillator 55

Shared Reference vs. Shared LO 56

Channel-to-Channel Phase Accuracy STDEV = 0.37 STDEV = 0.045 57

6-Channel Phase-Coherent Record 50 MHz BW Each Channel, Total of 1.5 GB/s Streamed to Disk 58

3 Ch Phase-Coherent Playback Setup 100 MHz BW Each Channel, Total of 1.5 GB/s Streamed From Disk 59

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 60