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Usable bandwidth of X300 USRP with UBX-160 daughterboard

BH
Brendan Horsfield
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 2:45 AM

Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ
recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the future it
would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace &
waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or something like
it.

As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe
adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc.  This is a complex
procurement exercise all by itself.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂

Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our requirements.  My
original question was really about ensuring that our host PC & network
interface have sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of
UBX-160s.  It would be nice (although not essential) if we could run one
channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth
requirements on the backend hardware.

You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different sample
rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces.

But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no
closed-form answer to that question.  There's no
handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much "grunt" you
need for different DSP "flows" at
a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing, and how
you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up
in sample-rate, you have to scale up in:

o CPU base clock rate

o Memory bandwidth

o Number of CPUs

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would
normally do.  Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet
-- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order.

Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at
NI?  They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to
answer my question directly.

Thanks again for your help in this matter.

Regards,
Brendan.

I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very very part-time
basis).  My X310 is currently elsewhere, and not populated
with a UBX-160.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is not clear from the
X300 documentation how sharp those filters are.  Can you tell me how wide
the transition band is at the lower sample rates?

To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a
UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is
83.5 MHz wide.  Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to
minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC.  However, before I
do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate
will be greater than 83.5 MHz.  Is this information documented somewhere?

It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the decimation has a factor
of two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp.  Otherwise,
there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable
pass-band.

But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer"
filter shapes.

If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source, and
measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for
your application.

On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering
and those filters cannot be infinitely steep.
Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield <


Hi All,

I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP /

UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps:

As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware)

filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while
the ADC runs at 200 Msps.  Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of
the sample rate.

My question is:  What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling

rates?  Does the 80% factor always apply?

For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my sampling

rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz?

Thanks & Regards,
Brendan.


USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com
To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com

Point taken. At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ recording & playback with minimal processing. However, in the future it would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace & waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or something like it. As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc. This is a complex procurement exercise all by itself. On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: > On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote: > > I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂 > > Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our requirements. My > original question was really about ensuring that our host PC & network > interface have sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of > UBX-160s. It would be nice (although not essential) if we could run one > channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth > requirements on the backend hardware. > > You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different sample > rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces. > > But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no > closed-form answer to that question. There's no > handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much "grunt" you > need for different DSP "flows" at > a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing, and how > you're doing it. Generally, as you scale up > in sample-rate, you have to scale up in: > > o CPU base clock rate > > o Memory bandwidth > > o Number of CPUs > > > > > > > > On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >> >> Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would >> normally do. Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet >> -- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order. >> >> Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at >> NI? They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to >> answer my question directly. >> >> Thanks again for your help in this matter. >> >> Regards, >> Brendan. >> >> I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very very part-time >> basis). My X310 is currently elsewhere, and not populated >> with a UBX-160. >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>> >>> Yes, I assumed that was the case. However, it is not clear from the >>> X300 documentation how sharp those filters are. Can you tell me how wide >>> the transition band is at the lower sample rates? >>> >>> To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a >>> UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is >>> 83.5 MHz wide. Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to >>> minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC. However, before I >>> do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate >>> will be greater than 83.5 MHz. Is this information documented somewhere? >>> >>> >>> It somewhat depends on the decimation. If the decimation has a factor >>> of two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp. Otherwise, >>> there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable >>> pass-band. >>> >>> But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer" >>> filter shapes. >>> >>> >>> If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source, and >>> measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for >>> your application. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering >>>> and those filters cannot be infinitely steep. >>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>> >>>> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield < >>>> brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: >>>> > >>>> >  >>>> > Hi All, >>>> > >>>> > I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP / >>>> UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps: >>>> > >>>> > As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware) >>>> filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while >>>> the ADC runs at 200 Msps. Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of >>>> the sample rate. >>>> > >>>> > My question is: What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling >>>> rates? Does the 80% factor always apply? >>>> > >>>> > For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my sampling >>>> rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz? >>>> > >>>> > Thanks & Regards, >>>> > Brendan. >>>> > >>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>> > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com >>>> > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >>>> >>> >>> >> >
MD
Marcus D. Leech
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 3:11 AM

On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ
recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the future
it would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace
& waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or
something like it.

As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe
adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc. This is a complex
procurement exercise all by itself.

My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME SSDs are
among the fastest.   Performance up to a few GByte/Sec
  on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be sustained 
at those rates, or whether it's "bursty".

I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo
dual-Xeon hardware at 100Msps, but only using the
  kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays
often use, where most of the data is discarded.  Often,
  that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum.

On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a
direct answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off
  as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%. That
doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the
  DDC implementation is of the same generation.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech
patchvonbraun@gmail.com wrote:

 On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
 I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂

 Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our
 requirements.  My original question was really about ensuring
 that our host PC & network interface have sufficient bandwidth to
 ingest the IQ data from a pair of UBX-160s.  It would be nice
 (although not essential) if we could run one channel at 100 Msps,
 and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth requirements
 on the backend hardware.
 You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different
 sample rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces.

 But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no
 closed-form answer to that question.  There's no
   handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much
 "grunt" you need for different DSP "flows" at
   a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing,
 and how you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up
   in sample-rate, you have to scale up in:

    o CPU base clock rate

    o Memory bandwidth

    o Number of CPUs
 On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech
 <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

     On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
     Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's
     what I would normally do.  Unfortunately I haven't actually
     purchased the hardware yet -- I was hoping to clarify this
     issue before raising a purchase order.

     Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application
     engineers at NI?  They might have access to an X310+UBX-160
     system that they can use to answer my question directly.

     Thanks again for your help in this matter.

     Regards,
     Brendan.
     I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very
     very part-time basis).  My X310 is currently elsewhere, and
     not populated
       with a UBX-160.
     On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech
     <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

         On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
         Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is not
         clear from the X300 documentation how sharp those
         filters are.  Can you tell me how wide the transition
         band is at the lower sample rates?

         To give you some context, I would like to use an X300
         (or X310) with a UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the
         entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is 83.5 MHz wide. 
         Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps
         to minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host
         PC.  However, before I do this I need to be certain
         that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate will be
         greater than 83.5 MHz. Is this information documented
         somewhere?
         It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the
         decimation has a factor of two or 4, the edge roll-off
         is fairly sharp.  Otherwise,
           there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a
         less-desirable pass-band.

         But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is
         in the "nicer" filter shapes.


         If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a
         noise source, and measure it yourself to see if it's
         appropriate for
           your application.
         On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech
         <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

             There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation
             includes filtering and those filters cannot be
             infinitely steep.
             Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield

             <brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote:


Hi All,

I have a question about the usable bandwidth of

             the X300 USRP / UBX-160 daughterboard combo at
             sampling rates below 200 Msps:

As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an

             analog (hardware) filter before the ADC that limits
             the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while the ADC runs
             at 200 Msps.  Therefore the usable bandwidth is
             around 80% of the sample rate.

My question is:  What is the usable bandwidth at

             lower sampling rates?  Does the 80% factor always
             apply?

For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4,

             so that my sampling rate is 50 Msps, does this mean
             that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz?

Thanks & Regards,
Brendan.


USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com
To unsubscribe send an email to

             usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com
On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: > Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ > recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the future > it would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace > & waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or > something like it. > > As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe > adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc. This is a complex > procurement exercise all by itself. My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME SSDs are among the fastest.   Performance up to a few GByte/Sec   on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be sustained  at those rates, or whether it's "bursty". I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo dual-Xeon hardware at 100Msps, but only using the   kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays often use, where most of the data is discarded.  Often,   that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum. On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a direct answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off   as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%. That doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the   DDC implementation is of the same generation. > > > > On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech > <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >> I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂 >> >> Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our >> requirements.  My original question was really about ensuring >> that our host PC & network interface have sufficient bandwidth to >> ingest the IQ data from a pair of UBX-160s.  It would be nice >> (although not essential) if we could run one channel at 100 Msps, >> and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth requirements >> on the backend hardware. > You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different > sample rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces. > > But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no > closed-form answer to that question.  There's no >   handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much > "grunt" you need for different DSP "flows" at >   a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing, > and how you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up >   in sample-rate, you have to scale up in: > >    o CPU base clock rate > >    o Memory bandwidth > >    o Number of CPUs > > > > >> >> >> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech >> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>> Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's >>> what I would normally do.  Unfortunately I haven't actually >>> purchased the hardware yet -- I was hoping to clarify this >>> issue before raising a purchase order. >>> >>> Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application >>> engineers at NI?  They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 >>> system that they can use to answer my question directly. >>> >>> Thanks again for your help in this matter. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Brendan. >> I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very >> very part-time basis).  My X310 is currently elsewhere, and >> not populated >>   with a UBX-160. >> >> >>> >>> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech >>> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>>> Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is not >>>> clear from the X300 documentation how sharp those >>>> filters are.  Can you tell me how wide the transition >>>> band is at the lower sample rates? >>>> >>>> To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 >>>> (or X310) with a UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the >>>> entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is 83.5 MHz wide.  >>>> Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps >>>> to minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host >>>> PC.  However, before I do this I need to be certain >>>> that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate will be >>>> greater than 83.5 MHz. Is this information documented >>>> somewhere? >>>> >>>> >>> It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the >>> decimation has a factor of two or 4, the edge roll-off >>> is fairly sharp.  Otherwise, >>>   there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a >>> less-desirable pass-band. >>> >>> But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is >>> in the "nicer" filter shapes. >>> >>> >>> If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a >>> noise source, and measure it yourself to see if it's >>> appropriate for >>>   your application. >>> >>> >>>> >>>> On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech >>>> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation >>>> includes filtering and those filters cannot be >>>> infinitely steep. >>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>> >>>> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield >>>> <brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: >>>> > >>>> >  >>>> > Hi All, >>>> > >>>> > I have a question about the usable bandwidth of >>>> the X300 USRP / UBX-160 daughterboard combo at >>>> sampling rates below 200 Msps: >>>> > >>>> > As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an >>>> analog (hardware) filter before the ADC that limits >>>> the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while the ADC runs >>>> at 200 Msps.  Therefore the usable bandwidth is >>>> around 80% of the sample rate. >>>> > >>>> > My question is:  What is the usable bandwidth at >>>> lower sampling rates?  Does the 80% factor always >>>> apply? >>>> > >>>> > For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, >>>> so that my sampling rate is 50 Msps, does this mean >>>> that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz? >>>> > >>>> > Thanks & Regards, >>>> > Brendan. >>>> > >>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>> > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com >>>> > To unsubscribe send an email to >>>> usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >>>> >>> >> >
BH
Brendan Horsfield
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 7:22 AM

Just to clarify one point:  How do you define the start of the transition
region?  Do you go from the 3 dB corner frequency, or something else, like
the equiripple bandwidth of the FIR filter?

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 13:11, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ
recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the future it
would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace &
waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or something like
it.

As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe
adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc.  This is a complex
procurement exercise all by itself.

My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME SSDs are
among the fastest.  Performance up to a few GByte/Sec
on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be sustained  at
those rates, or whether it's "bursty".

I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo dual-Xeon
hardware at 100Msps, but only using the
kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays often
use, where most of the data is discarded.  Often,
that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum.

On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a direct
answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off
as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%.  That
doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the
DDC implementation is of the same generation.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂

Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our requirements.
My original question was really about ensuring that our host PC & network
interface have sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of
UBX-160s.  It would be nice (although not essential) if we could run one
channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth
requirements on the backend hardware.

You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different sample
rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces.

But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no
closed-form answer to that question.  There's no
handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much "grunt" you
need for different DSP "flows" at
a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing, and how
you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up
in sample-rate, you have to scale up in:

o CPU base clock rate

o Memory bandwidth

o Number of CPUs

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would
normally do.  Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet
-- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order.

Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at
NI?  They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to
answer my question directly.

Thanks again for your help in this matter.

Regards,
Brendan.

I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very very part-time
basis).  My X310 is currently elsewhere, and not populated
with a UBX-160.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is not clear from the
X300 documentation how sharp those filters are.  Can you tell me how wide
the transition band is at the lower sample rates?

To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a
UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is
83.5 MHz wide.  Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to
minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC.  However, before I
do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate
will be greater than 83.5 MHz.  Is this information documented somewhere?

It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the decimation has a factor
of two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp.  Otherwise,
there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable
pass-band.

But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer"
filter shapes.

If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source,
and measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for
your application.

On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering
and those filters cannot be infinitely steep.
Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield <


Hi All,

I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP /

UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps:

As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware)

filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while
the ADC runs at 200 Msps.  Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of
the sample rate.

My question is:  What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling

rates?  Does the 80% factor always apply?

For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my

sampling rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be
40 MHz?

Thanks & Regards,
Brendan.


USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com
To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com

Just to clarify one point: How do you define the start of the transition region? Do you go from the 3 dB corner frequency, or something else, like the equiripple bandwidth of the FIR filter? On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 13:11, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: > On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: > > Point taken. At this stage we are mainly interested in straight IQ > recording & playback with minimal processing. However, in the future it > would be desirable to be able to display a real-time spectrum trace & > waterfall plot during recording/playback, using GNU Radio or something like > it. > > As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a dual-10Gbe > adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc. This is a complex > procurement exercise all by itself. > > My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME SSDs are > among the fastest. Performance up to a few GByte/Sec > on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be sustained at > those rates, or whether it's "bursty". > > I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo dual-Xeon > hardware at 100Msps, but only using the > kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays often > use, where most of the data is discarded. Often, > that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum. > > On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a direct > answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off > as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%. That > doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the > DDC implementation is of the same generation. > > > > > > On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >> >> I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂 >> >> Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our requirements. >> My original question was really about ensuring that our host PC & network >> interface have sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of >> UBX-160s. It would be nice (although not essential) if we could run one >> channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200 Msps, to reduce the bandwidth >> requirements on the backend hardware. >> >> You'd need to have separate streamers to support two different sample >> rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces. >> >> But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". There's no >> closed-form answer to that question. There's no >> handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much "grunt" you >> need for different DSP "flows" at >> a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're doing, and how >> you're doing it. Generally, as you scale up >> in sample-rate, you have to scale up in: >> >> o CPU base clock rate >> >> o Memory bandwidth >> >> o Number of CPUs >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>> >>> Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would >>> normally do. Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet >>> -- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order. >>> >>> Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at >>> NI? They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to >>> answer my question directly. >>> >>> Thanks again for your help in this matter. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Brendan. >>> >>> I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very very very part-time >>> basis). My X310 is currently elsewhere, and not populated >>> with a UBX-160. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>>> >>>> Yes, I assumed that was the case. However, it is not clear from the >>>> X300 documentation how sharp those filters are. Can you tell me how wide >>>> the transition band is at the lower sample rates? >>>> >>>> To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a >>>> UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is >>>> 83.5 MHz wide. Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to >>>> minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC. However, before I >>>> do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate >>>> will be greater than 83.5 MHz. Is this information documented somewhere? >>>> >>>> >>>> It somewhat depends on the decimation. If the decimation has a factor >>>> of two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp. Otherwise, >>>> there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable >>>> pass-band. >>>> >>>> But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer" >>>> filter shapes. >>>> >>>> >>>> If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source, >>>> and measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for >>>> your application. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering >>>>> and those filters cannot be infinitely steep. >>>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>>> >>>>> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield < >>>>> brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: >>>>> > >>>>> >  >>>>> > Hi All, >>>>> > >>>>> > I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP / >>>>> UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps: >>>>> > >>>>> > As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware) >>>>> filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while >>>>> the ADC runs at 200 Msps. Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of >>>>> the sample rate. >>>>> > >>>>> > My question is: What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling >>>>> rates? Does the 80% factor always apply? >>>>> > >>>>> > For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my >>>>> sampling rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be >>>>> 40 MHz? >>>>> > >>>>> > Thanks & Regards, >>>>> > Brendan. >>>>> > >>>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>>> > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com >>>>> > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
MB
Martin Braun
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 10:29 AM

Hi Brendan,

80% is an excellent rule of thumb for both the analog and digital filters.
If you use "odd" decimations (e.g., you try and capture at 66 Msps), then
the digital filter response is worse, but if you capture at say 50 Msps (at
a 200 Msps sampling rate) then you have two nice half-band filters doing
the resampling. The filter taps for those half-bands are in the code, if
you want the raw numbers without running UHD then we can pick them out for
you.

Also thanks to everyone here with your suggestions!

--M

On Wed, Feb 19, 2025 at 1:13 AM Brendan Horsfield <
brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would
normally do.  Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet
-- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order.

Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at
NI?  They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to
answer my question directly.

Thanks again for your help in this matter.

Regards,
Brendan.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is not clear from the X300
documentation how sharp those filters are.  Can you tell me how wide the
transition band is at the lower sample rates?

To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a
UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is
83.5 MHz wide.  Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to
minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC.  However, before I
do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate
will be greater than 83.5 MHz.  Is this information documented somewhere?

It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the decimation has a factor of
two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp.  Otherwise,
there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable
pass-band.

But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer"
filter shapes.

If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source, and
measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for
your application.

On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech patchvonbraun@gmail.com
wrote:

There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering
and those filters cannot be infinitely steep.
Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield <


Hi All,

I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP /

UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps:

As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware)

filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while
the ADC runs at 200 Msps.  Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of
the sample rate.

My question is:  What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling

rates?  Does the 80% factor always apply?

For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my sampling

rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz?

Thanks & Regards,
Brendan.


USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com
To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com


USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com
To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com

Hi Brendan, 80% is an excellent rule of thumb for both the analog and digital filters. If you use "odd" decimations (e.g., you try and capture at 66 Msps), then the digital filter response is worse, but if you capture at say 50 Msps (at a 200 Msps sampling rate) then you have two nice half-band filters doing the resampling. The filter taps for those half-bands are in the code, if you want the raw numbers without running UHD then we can pick them out for you. Also thanks to everyone here with your suggestions! --M On Wed, Feb 19, 2025 at 1:13 AM Brendan Horsfield < brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: > Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- that's what I would > normally do. Unfortunately I haven't actually purchased the hardware yet > -- I was hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase order. > > Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the application engineers at > NI? They might have access to an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to > answer my question directly. > > Thanks again for your help in this matter. > > Regards, > Brendan. > > > On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >> >> Yes, I assumed that was the case. However, it is not clear from the X300 >> documentation how sharp those filters are. Can you tell me how wide the >> transition band is at the lower sample rates? >> >> To give you some context, I would like to use an X300 (or X310) with a >> UBX-160 daughterboard to digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is >> 83.5 MHz wide. Ideally I would like to use a sample rate of 100 Msps to >> minimise the data rate between the USRP and the host PC. However, before I >> do this I need to be certain that the usable bandwidth at this sample rate >> will be greater than 83.5 MHz. Is this information documented somewhere? >> >> >> It somewhat depends on the decimation. If the decimation has a factor of >> two or 4, the edge roll-off is fairly sharp. Otherwise, >> there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a less-desirable >> pass-band. >> >> But I don't know, precisely, what the transition band is in the "nicer" >> filter shapes. >> >> >> If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just use a noise source, and >> measure it yourself to see if it's appropriate for >> your application. >> >> >> >> >> On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> There will always be some edge roll off. Decimation includes filtering >>> and those filters cannot be infinitely steep. >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan Horsfield < >>> brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: >>> > >>> >  >>> > Hi All, >>> > >>> > I have a question about the usable bandwidth of the X300 USRP / >>> UBX-160 daughterboard combo at sampling rates below 200 Msps: >>> > >>> > As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has an analog (hardware) >>> filter before the ADC that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, while >>> the ADC runs at 200 Msps. Therefore the usable bandwidth is around 80% of >>> the sample rate. >>> > >>> > My question is: What is the usable bandwidth at lower sampling >>> rates? Does the 80% factor always apply? >>> > >>> > For example, if I set the decimation factor to 4, so that my sampling >>> rate is 50 Msps, does this mean that the usable bandwidth will be 40 MHz? >>> > >>> > Thanks & Regards, >>> > Brendan. >>> > >>> > _______________________________________________ >>> > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com >>> > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >
MD
Marcus D. Leech
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 1:47 PM

On 19/02/2025 02:22, Brendan Horsfield wrote:

Just to clarify one point:  How do you define the start of the
transition region?  Do you go from the 3 dB corner frequency, or
something else, like the equiripple bandwidth of the FIR filter?

I just did it visually on an FFT display from the 3dB corner.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 13:11, Marcus D. Leech
patchvonbraun@gmail.com wrote:

 On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
 Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight
 IQ recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the
 future it would be desirable to be able to display a real-time
 spectrum trace & waterfall plot during recording/playback, using
 GNU Radio or something like it.

 As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a
 dual-10Gbe adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc. 
 This is a complex procurement exercise all by itself.
 My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME
 SSDs are among the fastest.   Performance up to a few GByte/Sec
   on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be
 sustained  at those rates, or whether it's "bursty".

 I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo
 dual-Xeon hardware at 100Msps, but only using the
   kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays
 often use, where most of the data is discarded. Often,
   that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum.

 On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a
 direct answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off
   as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%. 
 That doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the
   DDC implementation is of the same generation.
 On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech
 <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

     On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
     I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂

     Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our
     requirements.  My original question was really about
     ensuring that our host PC & network interface have
     sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of
     UBX-160s.  It would be nice (although not essential) if we
     could run one channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200
     Msps, to reduce the bandwidth requirements on the backend
     hardware.
     You'd need to have separate streamers to support two
     different sample rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces.

     But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?".
     There's no closed-form answer to that question.  There's no
       handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much
     "grunt" you need for different DSP "flows" at
       a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're
     doing, and how you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up
       in sample-rate, you have to scale up in:

        o CPU base clock rate

        o Memory bandwidth

        o Number of CPUs
     On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech
     <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

         On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
         Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source --
         that's what I would normally do.  Unfortunately I
         haven't actually purchased the hardware yet -- I was
         hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase
         order.

         Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the
         application engineers at NI?  They might have access to
         an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to answer my
         question directly.

         Thanks again for your help in this matter.

         Regards,
         Brendan.
         I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very
         very very part-time basis).  My X310 is currently
         elsewhere, and not populated
           with a UBX-160.
         On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech
         <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

             On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote:
             Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is
             not clear from the X300 documentation how sharp
             those filters are.  Can you tell me how wide the
             transition band is at the lower sample rates?

             To give you some context, I would like to use an
             X300 (or X310) with a UBX-160 daughterboard to
             digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is
             83.5 MHz wide. Ideally I would like to use a
             sample rate of 100 Msps to minimise the data rate
             between the USRP and the host PC. However, before
             I do this I need to be certain that the usable
             bandwidth at this sample rate will be greater than
             83.5 MHz.  Is this information documented somewhere?
             It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the
             decimation has a factor of two or 4, the edge
             roll-off is fairly sharp. Otherwise,
               there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a
             less-desirable pass-band.

             But I don't know, precisely, what the transition
             band is in the "nicer" filter shapes.


             If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just
             use a noise source, and measure it yourself to see
             if it's appropriate for
               your application.
             On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech
             <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote:

                 There will always be some edge roll off.
                 Decimation includes filtering and those
                 filters cannot be infinitely steep.
                 Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan

                 Horsfield <brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote:


Hi All,

I have a question about the usable bandwidth

                 of the X300 USRP / UBX-160 daughterboard combo
                 at sampling rates below 200 Msps:

As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has

                 an analog (hardware) filter before the ADC
                 that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz,
                 while the ADC runs at 200 Msps. Therefore the
                 usable bandwidth is around 80% of the sample rate.

My question is:  What is the usable

                 bandwidth at lower sampling rates?  Does the
                 80% factor always apply?

For example, if I set the decimation factor

                 to 4, so that my sampling rate is 50 Msps,
                 does this mean that the usable bandwidth will
                 be 40 MHz?

Thanks & Regards,
Brendan.


USRP-users mailing list --

                 usrp-users@lists.ettus.com

To unsubscribe send an email to

                 usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com
On 19/02/2025 02:22, Brendan Horsfield wrote: > Just to clarify one point:  How do you define the start of the > transition region?  Do you go from the 3 dB corner frequency, or > something else, like the equiripple bandwidth of the FIR filter? I just did it visually on an FFT display from the 3dB corner. > > > On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 13:11, Marcus D. Leech > <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 18/02/2025 21:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >> Point taken.  At this stage we are mainly interested in straight >> IQ recording & playback with minimal processing.  However, in the >> future it would be desirable to be able to display a real-time >> spectrum trace & waterfall plot during recording/playback, using >> GNU Radio or something like it. >> >> As you suggest, I am assuming our host machine will need a >> dual-10Gbe adaptor card and a high-spec CPU, memory, SSD etc.  >> This is a complex procurement exercise all by itself. > My understanding (and I haven't played with them) is that NVME > SSDs are among the fastest.   Performance up to a few GByte/Sec >   on write is possible, although I don't know if it can be > sustained  at those rates, or whether it's "bursty". > > I've been able to produce "real-time" spectral displays on 10yo > dual-Xeon hardware at 100Msps, but only using the >   kind of "stuttered" display approach that Gnu Radio FFT displays > often use, where most of the data is discarded. Often, >   that's all that's needed to show a quick summary of the spectrum. > > On your other question, about transition bandwidth, I don't have a > direct answer, but on an N310 I measured the roll-off >   as a fraction of the overall bandwidth, and it is about 12.5%.  > That doesn't necessarily translate to the X310, but the >   DDC implementation is of the same generation. > > >> >> >> >> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:58, Marcus D. Leech >> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On 18/02/2025 19:26, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>> I thought your name sounded familiar! 🙂 >>> >>> Overall the X310+UBX-160 appears to be a good fit to our >>> requirements.  My original question was really about >>> ensuring that our host PC & network interface have >>> sufficient bandwidth to ingest the IQ data from a pair of >>> UBX-160s.  It would be nice (although not essential) if we >>> could run one channel at 100 Msps, and the other at 200 >>> Msps, to reduce the bandwidth requirements on the backend >>> hardware. >> You'd need to have separate streamers to support two >> different sample rates, and two 10Gbe interfaces. >> >> But in terms of "what kind of PC hardware do I need?". >> There's no closed-form answer to that question.  There's no >>   handy-dandy "engineering worksheet" that tells you how much >> "grunt" you need for different DSP "flows" at >>   a given sample-rate--so very much depends on what you're >> doing, and how you're doing it.  Generally, as you scale up >>   in sample-rate, you have to scale up in: >> >>    o CPU base clock rate >> >>    o Memory bandwidth >> >>    o Number of CPUs >> >> >> >> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:17, Marcus D. Leech >>> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> On 18/02/2025 19:13, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>>> Thanks for the suggestion about the noise source -- >>>> that's what I would normally do.  Unfortunately I >>>> haven't actually purchased the hardware yet -- I was >>>> hoping to clarify this issue before raising a purchase >>>> order. >>>> >>>> Perhaps I should follow this up with one of the >>>> application engineers at NI?  They might have access to >>>> an X310+UBX-160 system that they can use to answer my >>>> question directly. >>>> >>>> Thanks again for your help in this matter. >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> Brendan. >>> I actually do work for NI on USRP devices (on a very >>> very very part-time basis).  My X310 is currently >>> elsewhere, and not populated >>>   with a UBX-160. >>> >>> >>>> >>>> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 09:55, Marcus D. Leech >>>> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> On 18/02/2025 18:45, Brendan Horsfield wrote: >>>>> Yes, I assumed that was the case.  However, it is >>>>> not clear from the X300 documentation how sharp >>>>> those filters are.  Can you tell me how wide the >>>>> transition band is at the lower sample rates? >>>>> >>>>> To give you some context, I would like to use an >>>>> X300 (or X310) with a UBX-160 daughterboard to >>>>> digitise the entire 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which is >>>>> 83.5 MHz wide. Ideally I would like to use a >>>>> sample rate of 100 Msps to minimise the data rate >>>>> between the USRP and the host PC. However, before >>>>> I do this I need to be certain that the usable >>>>> bandwidth at this sample rate will be greater than >>>>> 83.5 MHz.  Is this information documented somewhere? >>>>> >>>>> >>>> It somewhat depends on the decimation.  If the >>>> decimation has a factor of two or 4, the edge >>>> roll-off is fairly sharp. Otherwise, >>>>   there's a half-band filter in-place that causes a >>>> less-desirable pass-band. >>>> >>>> But I don't know, precisely, what the transition >>>> band is in the "nicer" filter shapes. >>>> >>>> >>>> If you have an X310+UBX-160, you can always just >>>> use a noise source, and measure it yourself to see >>>> if it's appropriate for >>>>   your application. >>>> >>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 at 23:11, Marcus D Leech >>>>> <patchvonbraun@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> There will always be some edge roll off. >>>>> Decimation includes filtering and those >>>>> filters cannot be infinitely steep. >>>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>>> >>>>> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 2:12 AM, Brendan >>>>> Horsfield <brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote: >>>>> > >>>>> >  >>>>> > Hi All, >>>>> > >>>>> > I have a question about the usable bandwidth >>>>> of the X300 USRP / UBX-160 daughterboard combo >>>>> at sampling rates below 200 Msps: >>>>> > >>>>> > As I understand it, the UBX-160 receiver has >>>>> an analog (hardware) filter before the ADC >>>>> that limits the usable bandwidth to 160 MHz, >>>>> while the ADC runs at 200 Msps. Therefore the >>>>> usable bandwidth is around 80% of the sample rate. >>>>> > >>>>> > My question is:  What is the usable >>>>> bandwidth at lower sampling rates?  Does the >>>>> 80% factor always apply? >>>>> > >>>>> > For example, if I set the decimation factor >>>>> to 4, so that my sampling rate is 50 Msps, >>>>> does this mean that the usable bandwidth will >>>>> be 40 MHz? >>>>> > >>>>> > Thanks & Regards, >>>>> > Brendan. >>>>> > >>>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>>> > USRP-users mailing list -- >>>>> usrp-users@lists.ettus.com >>>>> > To unsubscribe send an email to >>>>> usrp-users-leave@lists.ettus.com >>>>> >>>> >>> >> >
BH
brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com
Thu, Feb 20, 2025 12:58 AM

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your kind offer.  I would be very interested in obtaining the taps for the half-band filters in the X300 series, if it’s not too much trouble.

Another contributor emailed me the taps for a USRP half-band filter yesterday, but they weren’t 100% sure if the taps were from the X300 series, or one of the older USRP models.  Here is a link to the FPGA code on GitHub where the taps came from:  https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd/blob/master/fpga/usrp3/lib/dsp/hb_dec.v

Based on the taps in the above link, I was able to generate the filter response shown in the see attached PNG.  From this I was able to extract the following table of “usable bandwidths” for different insertion loss specifications:

  • Max IL spec : Usable BW (as % of decimated sample rate)

  • 0.00075 dB (passband equiripple limit) : 70%

  • 0.5 dB: 83.5%

  • 1 dB : 87%

  • 3 dB : 94%

  • 6 dB : 100%

Brendan.

Hi Martin, Thanks for your kind offer. I would be very interested in obtaining the taps for the half-band filters in the X300 series, if it’s not too much trouble. Another contributor emailed me the taps for a USRP half-band filter yesterday, but they weren’t 100% sure if the taps were from the X300 series, or one of the older USRP models. Here is a link to the FPGA code on GitHub where the taps came from: [https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd/blob/master/fpga/usrp3/lib/dsp/hb_dec.v](https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd/blob/master/fpga/usrp3/lib/dsp/hb_dec.v "hp_dec.v") Based on the taps in the above link, I was able to generate the filter response shown in the see attached PNG. From this I was able to extract the following table of “usable bandwidths” for different insertion loss specifications: * **Max IL spec : Usable BW (as % of decimated sample rate)** * 0.00075 dB (passband equiripple limit) : 70% * 0.5 dB: 83.5% * 1 dB : 87% * 3 dB : 94% * 6 dB : 100% Brendan.