vrt-iq-tools

vrt-iq-tools is a collection of programs used for streaming IQ data using (a slightly modified variant of) libvrt, which in turn implements part of the ANSI/VITA 49.0 Radio Transport (VRT) standard. Most of the tools use VRT streams over ZMQ sockets.

Installation

Dependencies

This package needs much of libboost, libzmq, libfftw3 and libfftw3f. On a clean Ubuntu 22.04 system, these can be installed with:

apt install libboost-chrono-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev libzmq3-dev libfftw3-dev libfftw3-single3

Optional dependencies:

• librtlsdr-dev for RTL-SDR support
• libuhd-dev for UHD (USRP) support
• libgnuradio-pmt3.10.1 for gnuradio support
• nvidia-cuda-toolkit-gcc for GPU acceleration of some tools
• libpsrdada for DADA support, see installation instructions

Compilation

git clone https://github.com/tftelkamp/vrt-iq-tools
cd vrt-iq-tools
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install -j

Usage

Creating a VRT stream from an SDR or file:

• usrp_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from an Ettus USRP SDR device (e.g. B210).
• rfspace_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from RFSpace SDR device.
• rtlsdr_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from RTL-SDR device.
• sigmf_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from SigMF recording, or with --vrt from a VRT recording.
• play_vrt: Create VRT stream from SigMF recording, intended for transmitting.

Clients:

• vrt_to_sigmf: Store IQ and metadata as SigMF recording, or with --vrt as raw VRT.
• vrt_spectrum: Create spectra, store in CSV or ECSV format (compatible with Astropy). With --gnuplot, output can be piped to Gnuplot.
• vrt_to_filterbank: Create spectra, store in sigproc filterbank format.
• vrt_rffft: Create spectra and store in STRF format.
• vrt_fftmax: Create spectra, store only the frequency of the bin with the maximum. Used for Doppler tracking.
• vrt_fftmax_quad: Same as vrt_fftmax but used for modulated signals.
• vrt_pulsar: Channelize, dedisperse and fold pulsar data.

Converting to other stream types:

• vrt_to_stdout: Stream IQ to standard output. Useful for streaming to PhantomSDR.
• vrt_to_rtl_tcp: Stream as 8-bit RTL-TCP stream.
• vrt_to_gnuradio: Stream IQ to ZeroMQ socket to be used in GNURadio.
• vrt_to_fifo: Write IQ to a fifo buffer.
• vrt_to_udp: Stream IQ as fc32 UDP packets.
• vrt_to_dada: Stream to a psrdada ring buffer, to be used with pulsar software such as dspsr.

Miscellaneous:

• vrt_metadata: Print metadata of a VRT stream.
• vrt_forwarder: Forward ZMQ stream.
• vrt_to_void: Template for new clients.
• control_vrt: Control devices, e.g. to set gain or frequency.

License

GPLv3