Why is USRP for 5G Prototyping Better?

USRP for 5G Prototyping: Empowering the Future of Wireless Communication

The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) by Highmesh is a powerful tool for developing, testing, and deploying next-generation wireless technologies. Designed with flexibility and high performance, USRP platforms are ideal for 5G prototyping, enabling researchers, engineers, and developers to accelerate the innovation of advanced communication systems.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Highmesh.

Key Advantages of USRP for 5G Prototyping

1. Wideband Frequency Coverage

USRP devices support the wide frequency ranges required for 5G, including sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave bands. This broad coverage ensures compatibility with diverse use cases like enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC).

2. High Bandwidth and Low Latency

USRP platforms provide the high bandwidth and low-latency processing essential for 5G applications. Advanced FPGA capabilities enable real-time data processing, crucial for tasks such as beamforming, channel estimation, and high-speed data transfer.

3. Scalable and Modular Design

5G research often involves evolving requirements. USRP's modular architecture allows users to customize and upgrade components, such as RF front ends and signal processing modules, to match the demands of new 5G standards and protocols.

4. Software Integration

USRP devices integrate seamlessly with popular SDR development environments like GNU Radio, MATLAB, and LabVIEW. This compatibility allows researchers to develop and test algorithms for Massive MIMO, carrier aggregation, and dynamic spectrum sharing.

5. Precise Synchronization for Massive MIMO

USRP platforms support GPS-disciplined oscillators and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) configurations, enabling precise timing synchronization across distributed systems. This feature is critical for prototyping Massive MIMO and beamforming, key technologies in 5G networks.

Applications of USRP in 5G Development

1. Base Station Prototyping

Use Case: Developing and testing 5G base station designs, including gNodeB.

USRP Advantage: Highmesh’s USRP supports scalable MIMO setups and robust synchronization for realistic base station testing.

2. mmWave Research

Use Case: Exploring millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication for ultra-high-speed data transmission.

USRP Advantage: Wide frequency support and high bandwidth allow accurate testing of mmWave antennas and signal propagation.

3. 5G NR (New Radio) Testing

Use Case: Implementing and verifying the performance of the 5G NR standard.

USRP Advantage: Software flexibility enables the implementation of custom NR waveforms and dynamic spectrum management techniques.

4. Network Slicing and Virtualization

Use Case: Simulating and testing 5G network slicing to allocate resources efficiently.

USRP Advantage: USRP's software-defined capabilities make it ideal for experimenting with network virtualization and resource allocation.

5. IoT and URLLC

Want more information on HM USRP B Series? Feel free to contact us.

Use Case: Prototyping low-latency, high-reliability networks for IoT applications in smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and healthcare.

USRP Advantage: Highmesh’s USRP devices provide ultra-low-latency processing and robust signal performance, essential for mission-critical applications.

Addressing 5G Prototyping Challenges

High hardware costs: Affordable yet high-performance models are suitable for research and commercial prototyping.

Rapidly evolving standards: Modular design ensures adaptability to new 5G standards and updates.

Complex signal processing: FPGA-accelerated platforms handle computationally intensive tasks with ease.

Multi-device synchronization: Advanced timing features ensure precise synchronization for MIMO and distributed systems.

Why Choose Highmesh USRP for 5G Prototyping?

1. Industry-leading Performance

Our USRP platforms deliver the computational power and bandwidth necessary for cutting-edge 5G research and prototyping.

2. Customization for Specific Needs

Highmesh provides tailored USRP solutions to meet the unique requirements of individual 5G projects, whether it's mmWave exploration, network slicing, or Massive MIMO testing.

3. Comprehensive Support

Highmesh offers robust technical support, detailed documentation, and a global network to ensure the smooth deployment and operation of your USRP systems.

4. Cost-Effective Innovation

By combining modular hardware with open-source software frameworks, Highmesh reduces the total cost of 5G prototyping without compromising on quality.

In rapidly evolving applications such as drone defense and signal intelligence, faster deployment and the ability to quickly adapt are key. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems with powerful RF and signal processing capabilities are required, but an open platform is also a must to enable flexible enhancements to stay ahead of threats. For deployment use cases, low size, weight, and power (SWAP) SDRs enable mobile-ready, portable solutions.

Figure 1. SkySafe defeats commercial drone threats fast with open-source USRP. 

Commercial wireless communications testbeds and prototypes often need to address multiple frequency bands and standards for cellular and wireless connectivity. Keeping pace with new wireless standards like 5G means developing and testing software IP on capable hardware to prove out technologies that range from new coding schemes to advanced multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems often through over-the-air (OTA) wireless prototyping.

Figure 2. These low-profile SDRs feature the performance to enable large-scale 5G testbeds. 

The NI Ettus USRP X410 is the first of a new generation of high-performance SDRs from Ettus Research and NI. It combines the strength of both NI and Ettus Research into a single radio that supports both popular open-source tool flows, including the USRP Hardware Driver (UHD) and GNU Radio, as well as LabVIEW software. The NI Ettus USRP X410 is built on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC and outfitted with high-performance RF transmitter and receiver hardware to deliver NI’s most powerful SDR to date. The RFSoC provides a foundation of embedded processor and programmable FPGA technology integrated with data converters (ADCs/DACs). The quad-core Arm® processor allows for stand-alone operation (embedded mode) or host-based mode with an external host machine to run your application.

Figure 3. The NI Ettus USRP X410 integrates hardware and software to help you prototype high-performance wireless systems.

With more than twice the FPGA resources of other USRP products, the programmable logic portion of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA offers high-throughput digital signal processing (DSP) and hardened IP cores such as an onboard soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) and digital up/down conversion (DUC/DDC) cores. Especially effective for 5G prototyping, the SD-FECs can be used for real-time low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoding/decoding, one of the most compute-intensive operations in 5G. In FPGA-only designs, the SD-FEC logic can span multiple large Virtex-7 FPGAs; thus, incorporating it as a prebuilt core in silicon saves immense space and development effort.

The NI Ettus USRP X410 fully supports the popular RF Network-on-Chip (RFNoC) framework, making FPGA acceleration more accessible with a software application programming interface and FPGA infrastructure. This helps you get up and running quickly so you can focus on the value-added IP. You can seamlessly integrate host-based and FPGA-based processing into your application with the GNU Radio graphical interface, C++, or Python. The library of RFNoC blocks for common functions such as fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and finite impulse response (FIR) filters is a good place to start. Then you can add your own IP blocks to the modular architecture using your preferred hardware description language (HDL).

Beyond the FPGA fabric portion of the system, the Xilinx UltraScale+ RFSoC is equipped with four onboard application processing units (APUs) and two real-time processing units (RPUs) for applications that require an onboard embedded OS for stand-alone operation.

Figure 4. The simplified block diagram of the Xilinx UltraScale+ RFSoC shows the onboard APUs and RPUs for applications that require an onboard embedded OS for stand-alone operation.

With a frequency range covering 1 MHz to 7.2 GHz, the NI Ettus USRP X410 addresses not just the traditional RF sub-6 GHz bands but also the recently opened unlicensed band from 5.925 GHz to 7.125 GHz for Wi-Fi 6E. With the 400 MHz instantaneous bandwidth, you can exploit the wider channels and implement channel bonding and carrier aggregation for higher data throughput. The RF front-end architecture uses superheterodyne two-stage conversion below 3 GHz and single-stage conversion above 3 GHz, along with filtering and power-level control, to provide high-fidelity signal transmit and receive.

The NI Ettus USRP X410 incorporates four transmit and four receive channels into a compact ½ rack 1U form factor, making it versatile and easily transportable for field testing and operations. Each channel is independent, meaning each can be tuned to different frequencies for frequency division duplex (FDD) applications or for the simultaneous emulation of multiple signals. The channels can also be synchronized through an internal oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) that you can calibrate to within 50 ppb, an internal GPS disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) for time stamping, and 10 MHz reference and pulse-per-second (PPS) generation. For even higher channel counts, you can synchronize multiple devices by importing an external reference clock and using PPS generation for applications that require precise time alignment such as massive MIMO.

With wider bandwidths and more channels, moving a large amount of data on and off the radio can be a challenge. To address this, the NI Ettus USRP X410 features two configurable quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) ports that you can use to take advantage of dual 10 GbE or dual 100 GbE onboard. Additionally, the radio includes a PCI Express x8 Gen 3 port for up to 8 GB/s transfer rates.

Figure 5. The block diagram of the NI Ettus USRP X410 shows its RF and digital functions.