Teaching software defined radio using the USRP and LabVIEW

Author

Welch, Thad B. ; Shearman, Sam

Author_Institution

Boise State Univ., Boise, ID, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

25-30 March 2012

Firstpage

2789

Lastpage

2792

Abstract

The universal software radio peripheral (USRP) family of products has become a popular platform for hardware-based research and test bed validations conducted by universities in the software defined radio (SDR) and cognitive radio (CR) fields. With the recently released version of National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW, the USRP now offers a scalable, simpler, and easier to use combined platform. The new software support broadens the accessibility of the USRP platform for teaching applications and will spur further adoption within university communication systems classrooms, teaching laboratories, and their natural follow-on coursework. This paper will discuss the utilization of LabVIEW-based virtual instrumentation with the USRP to rapidly create real-time communication systems demonstrations for the classroom and/or laboratory settings. The combination of the USRP, LabVIEW, and Windows support enables implementation and exploration of both foundational and more advanced concepts related to signal processing and communications.

Keywords

cognitive radio; computer aided instruction; educational institutions; software radio; teaching; telecommunication computing; telecommunication engineering education; virtual instrumentation; National Instruments LabVIEW; Windows support enables implementation; cognitive radio; follow-on coursework; hardware-based research; real-time communication system demonstration; signal processing; software defined radio teaching; teaching laboratories; test bed validation; universal software radio peripheral family; university communication systems classroom; virtual instrumentation; Computers; Digital signal processing; Educational institutions; Laboratories; Receivers; Software radio; Communication Engineering Education;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2012 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kyoto

ISSN

1520-6149

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0045-2

Electronic_ISBN

1520-6149

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICASSP.2012.6288496

Filename

6288496