Problem with start/end of burst inband FPGA code

GNU Radio
1

Hey all,

We’re looking for someone to look over our shoulder on an inband FPGA
problem we’ve been stuck on for a couple days now.

The problem is that we never had code that throws out additional packets
in a burst if the initial packet had a timestamp that expired. When an
m-block message is fragmented into multiple USB packets, the packets are
considered a single burst, where the first packet has the start of burst
flag set and the last packet has the end of burst flag set. The first
packet has the timestamp set to the desired timestamp, and each
additional packet in the burst is given the ‘NOW’ timestamp.

The problem was that our code would throw away the first packet if the
timestamp expired, but the additional packets in the burst had a
timestamp of ‘NOW’ so they would be sent… but they shouldn’t be since
they are part of an ‘expired’ burst.

Ok, so on to the code:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v

The logic needs to be “if the packet with the start of burst flag was
thrown away, throw away all packets until we see the end of burst flag.”

If we see the start of burst flag, we set ‘burst’ to be 1.
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v#L97

If the timestamp has expired on the packet, set ‘trash’ to 1, and ‘skip’
set to 1:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v#L148

Finally, if we get a packet that does not have start of burst set, it
must be an intermediate packet or the last packet in a burst… either
way it does not matter. If ‘trash’ is set to 1, we want to skip it:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v#L106

If we see the end of burst flag, ‘burst’ is reset:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v#L102

If the next packet has a correct timestamp, we set trash back to 0. We
could just set trash to 0 when end of burst is read, but it doesn’t
really matter:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v#L137

So… as you can guess, this doesn’t work. This hasn’t been our only
attempt. We’ve trashed the code and re-written it a couple different
times with no success.

To test this we’ve been setting all packets to have a timestamp of 0.
This means we should get no sine wave on an oscope when transmitting,
regardless of the number of packet sin the burst. However, we see
chunks of the wave here and there when the number of packets in the
burst is greater than 1. If we set it so that a single m-block message
only creates 1 USB packet, it works… everything is thrown away.

We’d greatly appreciate any help, thanks!

  • George, Leo
2

George-

We’d greatly appreciate any help, thanks!

I started to take a look at your Verilog code and see if I could find
something, then
stopped. Can you repost it with correct indent/alignment? It’s hard to
read when
you’ve got something like this:

                if  (fifodata[`STARTOFBURST] == 1
                   && fifodata[`ENDOFBURST] == 1)
                   burst <= 0;
                else if (fifodata[`STARTOFBURST] == 1)
                    burst <= 1;
                else if (fifodata[`ENDOFBURST] == 1)
                    burst <= 0;

                                //Check trash
                                if (trash == 1 &&

fifodata[STARTOFBURST] == 0) begin trash <= 1; skip <= 1; reader_state <= IDLE; end else begin payload_len <= fifodata[PAYLOAD] ;
read_len <= 0;
reader_state <= TIMESTAMP;
rdreq <= 1;
end
end

which should be:

                if  (fifodata[`STARTOFBURST] == 1 &&

fifodata[ENDOFBURST] == 1) burst <= 0; else if (fifodata[STARTOFBURST] == 1)
burst <= 1;
else if (fifodata[`ENDOFBURST] == 1)
burst <= 0;

              //Check trash
                if (trash == 1 && fifodata[`STARTOFBURST] == 0)
                begin
                   trash <= 1;
                   skip <= 1;
                   reader_state <= IDLE;
                end
                else
                begin
                   payload_len <= fifodata[`PAYLOAD] ;
                   read_len <= 0;
                   reader_state <= TIMESTAMP;
                   rdreq <= 1;
               end

Maybe one of your guys is using tabs and another isn’t, or something
like that. If
so it might help to establish some basic source code rules for a
multi-person
project.

-Jeff

3

On 8/1/07, George N. [email protected] wrote:

Ok, so on to the code:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v

As a general rule, you shouldn’t have dangling if-else statements
meaning where there’s an if, there’s an else. Otherwise, the hardware
isn’t sure what is the default thing to do. Try to write your
statements so you end everything with an else.

Second, does this code have a testbench? If not, it really should.

Lastly, diagram it out. Even if it’s just for documents sake, make an
ASM chart of the process you are trying to accomplish. There are some
things in the code which are too complicated, and this might help you
out.

ASM Chart link:
http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/jmhill/suppnotes/AsmChart/index.htm

Complicated thing:

               //Check Start/End burst flag
               if  (fifodata[`STARTOFBURST] == 1 &&

fifodata[ENDOFBURST] == 1) burst <= 0; else if (fifodata[STARTOFBURST] == 1)
burst <= 1;
else if (fifodata[`ENDOFBURST] == 1)
burst <= 0;

A burst is started when there is a start of burst, or if we’re already
in a burst and it’s not the end of a burst, right? Otherwise, we’re
not bursting? I could very well be wrong, but definitely setup the
flow chart - diagram what you want it to do.

Jeff has a point as well - try to stick with spaces OR tabs, but don’t
mix them both (I like 4 spaces myself), but stick to one and go with
it.

Good luck.

Brian

4

On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 06:07:07PM -0400, Brian P. wrote:

On 8/1/07, George N. [email protected] wrote:

Ok, so on to the code:
http://gnuradio.org/trac/browser/gnuradio/branches/developers/zhuochen/burst/usrp/fpga/inband_lib/chan_fifo_reader.v

Jeff has a point as well - try to stick with spaces OR tabs, but don’t
mix them both (I like 4 spaces myself), but stick to one and go with
it.

Tab characters in the file must expand to 8.

Eric