VITA49 - VRT Output from spectrum analyser

GNU Radio
1

Hi all, I have a spectrum analyser that outputs its I and Q data over
TCP
or UDP in the VITA49 format, I’ve been searching around looking for a
way
to interface this into gnuradio but all the information I can seem to
find
regarding VITA49 seems to be with reference to USRP. Can anyone offer
any
advice or pointers for where to start? I have some programming
experience
if that’s what’s needed.

Thanks
Charles

2

On 15 May 2013 10:20, Charlie Starling wrote:

Hi all, I have a
spectrum analyser that outputs its I and Q data over TCP or UDP in the
VITA49 format, I’ve been searching around looking for a way to interface
this into gnuradio but all the information I can seem to find regarding
VITA49 seems to be with reference to USRP. Can anyone offer any advice
or pointers for where to start? I have some programming experience if
that’s what’s needed.

Thanks
Charles

The VITA-49 protocol
isn’t that complicated. I’d write a simple “interstitial” C program that
reads the VITA-49 packed samples from your UDP/TCP port, and then sends
them along a FIFO that Gnu Radio can open as a file source.

3

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 10:36:46AM -0400, [email protected] wrote:

C program that reads the VITA-49 packed samples from your UDP/TCP port, and
then sends them along a FIFO that Gnu Radio can open as a file source.

Or even better, write a GNU Radio block that does that and submit it to
github!

MB

–
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)

Dipl.-Ing. Martin B.
Research Associate

Kaiserstraße 12
Building 05.01
76131 Karlsruhe

Phone: +49 721 608-43790
Fax: +49 721 608-46071
www.cel.kit.edu

KIT – University of the State of Baden-Württemberg and
National Laboratory of the Helmholtz Association

4

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 10:20 AM, Charlie Starling
[email protected]wrote:

Hi all, I have a spectrum analyser that outputs its I and Q data over TCP
or UDP in the VITA49 format, I’ve been searching around looking for a way
to interface this into gnuradio but all the information I can seem to find
regarding VITA49 seems to be with reference to USRP. Can anyone offer any
advice or pointers for where to start? I have some programming experience
if that’s what’s needed.

For curious minds - what is the make and model of the analyzer you are
using?

Thanks,
Brian

5

On 15 May 2013 10:44, Martin B. (CEL) wrote:

On Wed, May 15,
2013 at 10:36:46AM -0400, [email protected]:

On 15 May 2013
10:20, Charlie Starling wrote: Hi all, I have a spectrum analyser that
outputs its I and Q data over TCP or UDP in the VITA49 format, I’ve been
searching around looking for a way to interface this into gnuradio but
all the information I can seem to find regarding VITA49 seems to be with
reference to USRP. Can anyone offer any advice or pointers for where to
start? I have some programming experience if that’s what’s needed. The
VITA-49 protocol isn’t that complicated. I’d write a simple
“interstitial” C program that reads the VITA-49 packed samples from your
UDP/TCP port, and then sends them along a FIFO that Gnu Radio can open
as a file source.

Or even better, write a GNU Radio block that does
that and submit it to
github!

MB

Yes, that would be fab.

I
would caution that because VITA-49 doesn’t actually specify any
encapsulation mechanisms for any higher-layer protocols, there’s no
“standard” way of placing VITA-49 over TCP and UDP, it is necessarily
proprietary.

It would be much better if there were a standard
encapsulation–that would make having a Gnu Radio block be a very
desirable thing…

6

It’s a Narda Remote Spectrum Analyzer - NRA

7

encapsulation–that would make having a Gnu Radio block be a very
desirable thing…

So this set of blocks will encapsulate a stream over VRL (vita radio
link layer) and VITA49 IF data packets. The VRL is really what makes
this work because its so much easier to do bounds recovery with.

Perhaps you can use this with the GrExtras socket block to receive from
your analyzer. Or perhaps with some minor modifications:

-josh