Ettus

Universal Software Radio Peripheral

Research The Foundation for Complete Software Radio Systems

THE USRP SYSTEM

The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP)

enables engineers to rapidly design and implement
powerful, flexible software radio systems. The intuitive
USRP design helps you to get your software radio up
and running quickly. Simply download GNU Radio,
a complete open source software radio and signal
processing package, and the USRP is ready to use.
Once you install the software and plug the USRP into
a host computer, it is ready to transmit and receive a
virtually limitless variety of signals.

The true value of the USRP is in what it enables

engineers and designers to create on a low budget
and with a minimum of effort. A large community of
developers and users have contributed to a substantial
code base and provided many practical applications for
the hardware and software. The powerful combination
of flexible hardware, open-source software and a
F E AT U R E S
community of experienced users makes it the ideal
platform for your software radio development.
Four 64 MS/s 12-bit analog to digital Converters

Four 128 MS/s 14-bit digital to analog Converters

Four digital downconverters with programmable

BENEFITS decimation rates

Two digital upconverters with programmable

Low cost, flexible platform interpolation rates
Large community of developers High-speed USB 2.0 interface (480 Mb/s)
Close coupling with the GNU Radio software radio Capable of processing signals up to 16 MHz wide
framework forms a flexible and powerful platform
Modular architecture supports wide variety of RF
daughterboards

Auxiliary analog and digital I/O support complex

radio controls such as RSSI and AGC

Fully coherent multi-channel systems

(MIMO capable)

Te l: + 1 - 6 5 0 - 9 6 7 - 2 8 7 0 Fa x: +1-866-807-9801 sal es@ettus.com w w w.ettus.com

 H A R DWA R E

The USRP can simultaneously receive and transmit on two

antennas in real time. All sampling clocks and local oscillators are
fully coherent, thus allowing you to create MIMO (multiple input,
S P E C I F I C AT I O N S
multiple output) systems.

In the USRP, high sample-rate processing takes place in the Supported Operating
field programmable gate array (FPGA), while lower sample-rate Systems
processing happens in the host computer. The two onboard digital Linux
downconverters (DDCs) mix, filter, and decimate (from 64 MS/s) Mac OS X
incoming signals in the FPGA. Two digital upconverters (DUCs)
Windows XP, Windows 2000
interpolate baseband signals to 128 MS/s before translating them
to the selected output frequency. The DDCs and DUCs combined
FreeBSD, NetBSD

with the high sample rates also greatly simplify analog filtering
requirements.
Input
Daughterboards mounted on the USRP provide flexible, Number of input channels: 4 (or 2 I-Q pairs)
fully integrated RF front-ends. A wide variety of available Sample rate: 64 Ms/s
daughterboards allows you to use different frequencies for a broad Resolution: 12 bits
range of applications. The USRP accommodates up to two RF SFDR: 85 dB
transceiver daughterboards (or two transmit and two receive) for RF
I/O.
Output
Available daughterboards include: Number of output channels: 4 (or 2 I-Q pairs)
DC to 30 MHz receiver 1150-1450 MHz transceiver Sample rate: 128 Ms/s
DC to 30 MHz transmitter 1.5-2.1 GHz transceiver Resolution: 14 bits
SFDR: 83 dB
1 MHz to 250 MHz receiver 2.3-2.9 GHz transceiver
1 MHz to 250 MHz transmitter 50 MHz to 1 GHz transceiver
Auxiliary I/O
50 to 860 MHz receiver 800 MHz to 2.2 GHz
transceiver High-speed digital I/O: 64 bits
800 MHz to 2.4 GHz receiver
2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Dualband Analog input: 8 channels
750-1050 MHz transceiver
transceiver Analog output: 8 channels

OPEN SOURCE

The entire USRP design is open source, including schematics,

firmware, drivers, and even the FPGA and daughterboard designs.
When combined with the open source GNU Radio software, you
get a completely open software radio system enabling host-based
signal processing on commodity platforms. No software or licenses
need to be purchased. It provides a complete development
environment to create your own radios.

While most often used with GNU Radio software, the USRP is
flexible enough to accommodate other options. Some users have
created their own SDR environments for the USRP, while others
have integrated the USRP into the LabView and Matlab/Simulink
environments.
 Transceiver Daughterboards
For the USRP Software Radio System

DESCRIPTION
Daughterboards turn a USRP or USRP2 motherboard
into a complete RF transceiver system. Just add an
antenna, and you are ready for two-way, high bandwidth
communications in many popular frequency bands. The
boards have many features which facilitate their integration
into more complex systems, such as digital control lines
and the option for split transmit and receive ports.
B OA R D S
WBX0510
Frequency Range: 50 MHz to 1 GHz
Transmit Power: 100mW (20dBm)
The frequency range of the WBX0510 covers many
bands of interest, including broadcast television (and
whitespaces), public safety, land-mobile communica-
tions, low-power unlicensed devices, wireless sensor
networks, cell phones, and five amateur radio bands.

RFX900
F E AT U R E S Frequency Range: 750 to 1050 MHz
Transmit Power: 200mW (23dBm)
30 MHz transmit and receive bandwidth
The RFX900 comes with a 902-928 MHz ISM-band filter
Fully synchronous design, MIMO capable installed for filtering strong out-of-band signals (like pag-
ers). The filter can easily be bypassed to allow usage
All functions controllable from software or FPGA over the full frequency range, enabling use with cellular,
paging, motes, and two-way radio, in addition to the ISM
Independent local oscillators (LOs) for TX and RX enable band.
split-frequency operation
RFX1200
< 200us PLL lock time, can be used for frequency hopping
Frequency Range: 1150 to 1450 MHz
Built-in T/R switching Transmit Power: 200mW (23dBm)
Coverage of navigation, satellite, and amateur bands.
TX and RX on same connector or use auxiliary RX port

16 digital I/O lines to control external devices RFX1800

like antenna switches Frequency Range: 1.5 to 2.1 GHz
Transmit Power: 100mW (20dBm)
Built-in analog RSSI measurement
Coverage of DECT, US-DECT, and PCS (including unli-
70 dB of AGC range censed) frequencies.

Adjustable transmit power RFX2400

Frequency Range: 2.3 to 2.9 GHz
Full-duplex capable (with some limitations)
Transmit Power: 50mW (17dBm)
The RFX2400 comes with a bandpass filter around
the ISM band (2400-2483 MHz). The filter can be
easily bypassed, allowing for coverage of the full fre-
quency range.

XCVR2450
Frequency Range: 2.4 to 2.5 GHz, and 4.9 to 5.9 GHz
Transmit Power: 100mW (20dBm)
The XCVR2450 covers both the ISM band at 2.4 GHz
and the entire 4.9 to 5.9 GHz band, including the public
safety, UNII, ISM, and Japanese wireless bands.

Ettus Research LLC Tel: +1-650-967-2870 Fax: +1-866-807-9801 sales@ettus.com 1580 West El Camino Real Suite 4 Mountain View, CA 94040 www.ettus.com
OVERVIEW
The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) enables
engineers to rapidly design and implement powerful, flexible
software radio systems.
The USRP product family consists of the motherboards (the
original USRP and the USRP2), which contain an FPGA for high-
speed signal processing, and interchangeable daughterboards
that cover different frequency ranges. Together, they bridge
between bits in a host computer and one or more antennas.
Among the various daughterboards, the USRP family has an
overall range of DC to 5.9 GHz, which covers everything from AM
radio through Wi-Fi and beyond.
The true value of the USRP family is in what it enables engineers
and designers to create on a low budget and with a minimum
of effort. The powerful combination of flexible hardware, open-
source software and a community of experienced users makes it
the ideal platform for your software radio development.
H A R DWA R E
The original USRP is a very low cost software radio device.
It connects to a host computer by USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s), and
can send up to 16 MHz of RF bandwidth in either direction. It
contains an FPGA which can be reprogrammed, 4 high-speed
Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), 4 high-speed Digital to
Analog Converters (DACs), and a lot of auxiliary analog and
digital IO to make integration into a larger system easy. It can
accommodate up to 2 transceiver daughterboards, making it 2x2
MIMO capable out of the box.
The USRP2 builds on the success of the original USRP, offering
higher performance and increased flexibility. The USRP2
connects to the host computer via Gigabit Ethernet, allowing it to
send up to 50 MHz of RF bandwidth in and out simultaneously. It
contains a much larger FPGA which can even be used to operate
the device in a standalone fashion, without a host computer. It
has higher-speed and higher precision ADCs and DACs. The
USRP2 holds a single transceiver daughterboard, and multiple
USRP2s can be connected together to form very wide MIMO
systems (up to 8x8).
A P P L I C AT I O N S
The USRP product family is in use all over the world in a wide
variety of applications. While the USRP is often used for rapid
prototyping and research applications, it has been deployed in
many real-world commercial and defense systems.
Co m m e rc i a l Ap p l i c a ti o n s
There are many applications for the USRP in commercial
systems. System development and prototyping is ideally done
on a software radio. And when an application does not have the
volume to justify a custom hardware design, the flexibility of the
USRP enables a cost effective, deployable system.
As an example, Path Intelligence Ltd., uses the USRP product
family to track pedestrian foot traffic in shopping malls. The
phased-array capabilities of the USRP allow Path Intelligence
to determine the locations of shoppers by receiving the control-
channel transmissions of cell phones.
De fe n s e a n d Ho m e l a n d S e c u r i ty
The USRP product family is being used by all branches of the
U.S. military and intelligence services, many large defense
contractors and other NATO nations. The USRP motherboard
and daughterboards enable rapid prototyping and deployment
of sophisticated wireless systems on a low budget. Some
applications include:
SIGINT/COMINT
Battlefield networks, survivable networks
JTRS research
Public safety communications bridges
Emergency low-power beacons
Mine safety and underground communications
Synthetic Aperture RADAR
Passive RADAR
Spectrum of the 930-932 MHz pager band.
GNU Radio and USRP running on Windows XP.
W i r e l e s s R e s e a rch
Numerous researchers in wireless networks are using the USRP
product family to study such diverse topics as:
MIMO systems
Ad-hoc and mesh networking
MAC-layer protocols
PHY-layer design
Spectrum occupancy, spectrum sensing
Cognitive radio
The open and easy to use USRP product family enables rapid
prototyping of innovative new communication systems. The low
cost allows deployment of significant numbers of nodes in a test-
bed for studying large-scale network effects.
Te a ch i n g
Many universities within the U.S. and around the world have
equipped student labs with USRP systems. The low cost,
extreme flexibility, and open-source nature of the USRP product
family and GNU Radio make them ideal for use in teaching:
Software radio
Signals and systems
Digital signal processing
Communication systems
FPGA design
Other Uses
For over three years our customers have been coming up with
new and innovative uses for their USRP systems. Some of the
more interesting examples include radio astronomy, wildlife
tracking, RFIDs, medical imaging, sonar, and customizable test
equipment.
Spectrogram of an FM transmitter with iBOC sidebands.
GNU Radio and USRP running on Mac OS X.
S O F T WA R E PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
G N U R adio USRP System
GNU Radio is an open-source software defined radio (SDR) USRP2 System
platform. It is has a large worldwide community of developers DC to 30 MHz receiver
and users that have contributed to a substantial code base DC to 30 MHz transmitter
and provided many practical applications for the hardware and
1 MHz to 250 MHz receiver
software. It provides a complete development environment to
create your own radios, handling all of the hardware interfacing,
1 MHz to 250 MHz transmitter
multithreading, and portability issues for you. 50 to 860 MHz receiver
800 MHz to 2.4 GHz receiver
GNU Radio has libraries for all common software radio needs, 50 MHz to 1 GHz transceiver
including various modulations (GMSK, PSK, QAM, OFDM, etc.),
800 MHz to 2.2 GHz transceiver
error-correcting codes (Reed-Solomon, Viterbi, Turbo Codes),
signal processing constructs (optimized filters, FFTs, equalizers,
2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Dualband transceiver
timing recovery), and scheduling. It is a very flexible system, and 750-1050 MHz transceiver (including cell and
ISM bands)
it allows applications to be developed in C++ or Python.


1150-1450 MHz transceiver
1.5-2.1 GHz transceiver (including PCS bands)
Building Software
2.3-2.9 GHz transceiver (including ISM band)

S U P P O R T E D P L AT F O R M S
Radio Systems
Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD
Windows XP, Windows 2000
The
Mac OS X (Intel and PowerPC) USRP
Applications written using GNU Radio will run on all supported Product
platforms Family
GNU Radio Companion (GRC), a GUI Radio Design
system, similar to SimuLinkTM ABOUT
O th e r Opt ions Ettus Research LLC
While most often used with GNU Radio software, the USRP is
flexible enough to accommodate other options. Some users have The USRP family of products is designed and built by
created their own SDR environments for the USRP, while others Ettus Research. The company specializes in ASIC-,
have integrated the USRP into the LabVIEWTM and MATLAB/ FPGA-, and software-based DSP systems. In addition,
Simulink environments. Ettus Research provides wireless, DSP, and software radio
design consulting services.
OSSIE, an open-source implementation of the Software
Communications Architecture (SCA) developed by a third-party, Tel: +1-650-967-2870
is also available for the USRP. Fax: +1-866-807-9801
1580 West El Camino Real
O pe n S ource C ommunity Suite 4
The entire USRP design is open source, including schematics, Mountain View, CA 94040
firmware, drivers, and even the FPGA and daughterboard sales@ettus.com
designs. When combined with the open source GNU Radio www.ettus.com
software, you get a completely open software radio system www.ettus.com
LabVIEW is a trademark of National Instruments Corporation. MATLAB and Simulink
enabling host-based signal processing on commodity platforms. are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. All other trademarks are the
No software or licenses need to be purchased. property of their respective owners.