Please Software Defined Radio Support to Caffe via Simulink-USRP package

81 views

GNURADIOGSMHandHeldSDRLTELabViewLibUSRPSimulinkSimulink-USRPUSRP1matlab

Skip to first unread message

Martin O'Shield

unread,

Jan 26, 2015, 3:22:39 PM1/26/15

to caffe...@googlegroups.com

Hello All,

I have a humble request to please add Simulink-USRP support to Caffe which has a MATLAB interface work(ing) with versions 2012b, 2013a/b, and 2014a: http://caffe.berkeleyvision.org/installation.html

Here is more information about Simulink-USRP:

Simulink-USRP: Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) Blockset

The Simulink-USRP project is an Open Source Software Package that enables owners of an Universal Software Radio Peripheral, also known as USRP, to build models in Simulink that interface with the hardware in realtime. It is thus possible to build a wide variety of signal processing applications and wireless communication devices directly in Simulink while being able to test them on real hardware at the same time. This software package was invented at the Communication Engineering Lab (CEL) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. It makes use of the library libusrp, which is part of GNU Radio. Currently, it is capable of controlling USRPs Version 1.

The problem with many current Universities who have the USRP1 is that the people who created Simulink-USRP software package, now works for the company who sold the original USRP1 which is now discontinued. And as a result, as documented in these 2 reports, Simulink-USRP software package has been hobbled to NOT work with newer version of Matlab/Labview requiring these former customers/Universities to purchase "Newer Model SDR devices", which, as you'll see, isn't necessary:

Evaluation Of Synchronization Algorithms With USRP

The USRP1 interface from the LNT University can only access USRP1 devices and cannot benefit from the new functionality of the UHD, (Because they ELIMINATED Functionality), while the MathWorks driver is articially limited to network based devices and is also lacking time tagging of samples. Due to the closed source nature of the support package it is impossible to change this. At the Institute we have both USRP1 and USRP N210 devices and it is very desirable to use both types of devices with the same codebase. Also the possibility of doing accurate range measurements by time tagging is very appealing. These considerations led to the development of a new MATLAB interface which is described in the following Chapter

http://www.nav.ei.tum.de/fileadmin/w00bkq/www/BA_-_Martin_Luelf.pdf

Army Research LaboratoryAdelphi,

MD 20783-1197ARL-TR-6491

June, 2013

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.
A MATLAB Library for Rapid Prototyping of WirelessCommunications

Algorithms with the Universal Software by Gunjan Verma and Paul Yu
www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA586682

If Caffe were able to connect with Software Defined Radio devices via, the Simulink-USRP software pachage, it would allow for experimentation with Radio Waves, while at the same time allowing existing USRP1 device holders the opportunity to take advantage of the Caffe's Matlab interface which works with Matlab versions 2012b, 2013a/b, and 2014a. If Caffe's Matlab interface worked with 2014b, we all could take advantage of the Matlab LTE Toolkit:

LTE System Toolbox - MATLAB - MathWorks

www.mathworks.com/products/lte-system/

MathWorks

LTE System Toolbox provides standard-compliant functions and apps for the design, simulation, and verification of LTE and LTE-Advanced communications ...

If you could please add Simulink-USRP support to Caffe, existing, through newer SDR device manufacturers, like myself, would be able to utilize Caffe's Matlab Interface.