About matlab and Gnuradio

GNU Radio
1

Dear All,

I have a general questions about matlab and GNUradio. Both of them are
support USRP N210, but i want to ask what is the strength of each other?
I guess matlab delays more than gnuradio, and has less open code. am I
right?

Anyone has more comments? thanks!

Best regards

Alex

2

On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Zan [email protected] wrote:

Dear All,

I have a general questions about matlab and GNUradio. Both of them are
support USRP N210, but i want to ask what is the strength of each other? I
guess matlab delays more than gnuradio, and has less open code. am I right?
Anyone has more comments? thanks!

Best regards
Alex

There are many different scenario to consider:

  • real-time vs off-line
  • graphical vs non-graphical flow graph
  • native language vs compiled language

In summary:

  • Matlab is widely used for off-line analysis (even with USRP), while
    gnuradio is often used for real-time analysis.

  • In Matlab you need Simulink for graphical mode to work, while
    Companion (GRC) is the native graphical tool for gnuradio (bundled
    with gnuradio standard installation).

  • To perform real-time analysis, matlab code must be translated into
    C-code and be compiled, using tools like Matlab Coder or Simulink
    Coder. This supports only a subset of core Matlab language features.
    In gnuradio there is no such restriction (all gnuradio features are
    fully supported).

-The gnuradio flow graph is built in python code, which do not need
compilation before execution, for real-time analysis.

-Gnuradio has better driver support on USRP. Matlab doesn’t support
legacy USRP.

-Graphical flow graph of GRC clearly indicates data type of each link
in different color. In Simulink flow graphs all links are black color.