We have used Matlab to generate *.mat file, a file around 1966240
complex
number OFDM samples.
Thinking to (I) transmit between two USRPs, (II) let the receiver side
saving data into file, and later (III) putting the file on Matlab for
demodulation.
What is the best way to do it? like create GRC blocks? or UHD
example?
How can I make sure that the TX part will stop when those 1966240
samples are sent. and RX part will stop when completely receiving those
1966240 samples?
samples are sent. and RX part will stop when completely receiving those
1966240 samples?
3. Should the file type be the *.dat?
Sincerely,
JPL
I’ll attempt to respond to both questions since they are really the same
thing.
First, this is kind of a weird way to use GNU Radio. GNU Radio provides
you
an environment to do all of the signal processing you want to do in c++
or
(if you want) python. The flowgraph of file → transmit antenna → over
the air → receive antenna → file followed by signal processing in
Matlab
is sort of not the point of GNU Radio. There’s nothing saying you cannot
do
this, but you might look in to implementing whatever signal processing
you
are doing in GNU Radio. This will reduce the round trip time of testing
and
make the whole experience a little better. ( you’re basically doing an
even
slower version of what we call flying blind: http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/FAQ#Flying-Blind )
Re: your other email and question about GR file sink/source:
About the file sinks… http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/FAQ#What-is-the-file-format-of-a-gr_file_sink
Basically it’s a binary file just like you would expect if you open a
file
with ‘b’ flag in most languages I’m familiar with. If you’re dumping
complex floats in there then you’ll need to read two float values.
There is a block called head. It takes a number of samples to pass
through and then quits. But again, you might consider your approach
here.
I’ve never actually looked in to the format of a .mat file, but
connecting that (regardless of data inside the file) to a UHD source
would
be spewing garbage out. The .dat extension you might see in GR
literature
is just a convention we use to denote it’s data; it’s not really a
special
format.
.mat is really just a complicated container format for all kind of
matlab data – GNU Radio can’t directly deal with that, although with
SciPy you could create something that will be able to parse .mat files;
but that is quite useless, as you could as well use Matlab to write
something that can be directly used with other software.
So to answer question (1.), I’d agree with Nathan: Best way to do it is
using the existing GNU Radio OFDM tools, not writing code that has
already been written several times, and start with something that
already works. Thereby dropping Matlab as your signal processing
framework, and only using it for data analysis and visualisation.
To comment on (II): GNU Radio has blocks like “file_sink”. They will
just save the samples to a file, in this case, in the format of raw
float32s (1 for real, 1 for imag part) one after another.
To answer (III): If you really want to do that, see the GNU Radio source
tree, gnuradio-core/src/utils/read_{float,complex,…}_binary.m. There
is the same with “write” instead of “read”.
Quick answer, don’t have time right now:
(A) Why did you save them as wav audio? Usually, it’s wiser to just
store them as raw data; see the scripts in
gnuradio-core/src/utils/{read,write}*
Note: you’re sending symbols from the source, not samples! Use bytes as
data format.
Answers:
(1) yes, that should do the trick.
(2) no, I think you should replace the CRC generator, unless you want to
have your symbols interleaved with checksums
Question:
(1) should I just replace the “Vector Source block” into “File Source”
in
tx_ofdm.grc?
(2) the rx_ofdm.grc, again, am I right just replace “tag debug” with
“file
sink”?
On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 06:00:48PM -0500, JPL wrote:
Question:
(1) should I just replace the “Vector Source block” into “File Source” in
tx_ofdm.grc?
This won’t work, the input expects a tagged stream (see the
corresponding manual page). You will need to split the file into
packets, and tag them with their length. Currently there’s no automatic
way to do that.
(2) the rx_ofdm.grc, again, am I right just replace “tag debug” with “file
sink”?
This on the other hand should work, providing your receiver is actually
working.
MB
–
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)
Sorry my bad, it’s typo.
I actually did save *.wav into *.dat.
and good to hear about that “it will work”
One question, the scripts in gnuradio-core/src/utils/{read,write}
If I use those scripts in the matlab, I will not need to worry about
setting the format, like float, int, or byte…etc, right?
and default, what type of format will the script save it into the *dat?
On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 09:06:24PM -0500, JPL wrote:
Hello, Martin
Would you please tell me where the “manual page” is?
It’s in the manual.
You go to gnuradio.org, click ‘C++ manual’, then ‘Related Pages’, then
‘Tagged Stream Blocks’.
And you are saying keep “vector source” block not replace with “file source”
block.
How can vector source import and read my *.dat?
You will have to load the .dat into a variable and then pass that to the
vector sink. It’s not the most user-friendly method, I admit, but the
tagged stream blocks are still pretty new and we’re only just figuring
out use-cases.
MB
–
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)
Would you please tell me where the “manual page” is?
Because I cannot understand How the Vector source works
(tagged_streams.make_lengthtags((packet_len,),(0,).length_tag_name)?
and where the "Import"block grab the value from (from
gnuradio.digital.utils import tagged_streams), (import numpy), and
(import
random)?
I just need to know how *vector source *related to those *import *block
And you are saying keep “vector source” block not replace with
“file
source” block.
How can vector source import and read my *.dat?
hi, i tried connecting a file sink at the tag debug place and i found
o’s and
1’s coming. we may have to pack them back like opposite operation in
transmitter GRC. i used REPACK Bits block and tested that the actual
data (1
to 96) is not coming back… and we have to use the “check CRC” in the
stream
crc block. but in the examples, it is given generate crc … is that
right?
is there any trick to get back the data other than this… looking
forward
for reply…