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Nick Corgan, 06/26/2012 03:37 pm


GNU Radio + UHD

GNU Radio is a popular SDR application framework commonly used with USRPs.

The gr-uhd component of GNU Radio comes with a set of source and sink blocks for UHD as well as block wrappers for the GNU Radio Companion.

Unofficial Installers

To make getting started easy, Ettus Research hosts unofficial installers for GNU Radio on Ubuntu, Fedora, and Windows. These installers are not supported by the GNU Radio Project.

The installers are built from the latest maint and master branches of GNU Radio, along with the GrExtras package:

Build and Install

If you are using Ubuntu or Fedora, the easiest way to compile UHD + GNU Radio is with the build-gnuradio script, linked below.

Otherwise, follow the building with CMake guide.

Using UHD with GNU Radio

The bridge between GNU Radio and the USRP is a set of blocks in the "gr-uhd" component:

  • USRP source block - provides RX data to downstream processing blocks
  • USRP sink block - accepts TX data from upstream processing blocks

The blocks can be used in C++, Python, or in the graphical GNU Radio Companion environment:

Using GNU Radio's sample tag feature, RX samples can be time-stamped, and TX samples can be precisely scheduled.
Timestamp and burst tag documentation can be found in the USRP source and sink header files:

Resources and Links