Prototype wireless systems faster, significantly shorten time to results!

National Instruments has announced an integrated software defined radio solution for rapidly prototyping high-performance, multichannel wireless communication systems. The NI USRP RIO platform is built on the NI LabVIEW RIO architecture and combines a high-performance 2 x 2 multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) RF transceiver capable of transmitting and receiving signals from 50 MHz to 6 GHz with an open LabVIEW programmable FPGA architecture.

Wireless engineers can use this technology to rapidly prototype real-time wireless communications systems and test them under real-world conditions. They can also prototype more capable wireless algorithms and systems faster and reduce time to results using the only complete platform to take full advantage of a graphical system design approach. The USRP RIO family delivers high-performance, real-time processing capability with the Xilinx Kintex-7 Series FPGA, low latency with the PCI Express connection to a host computer and small size (1U half wide, 19 in. rack mountable).

USRP RIO is ideal for a wide range of application areas including 5G wireless communications research, active and passive radar development and exploration, communications intelligence, connected smart devices and more. NI USRP^™ (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) is already a popular platform for research spanning industry and academia as it empowers researchers to rapidly iterate on designs via programmable software. For example, a recent Lund University announcement highlights a 5G research application focusing on massive MIMO – a technology being considered for 5G communication.