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Do you know a SDR (Software Defined Radio) kit with a 2.4GHz ISM band (2400MHz - 2483.5MHz) transceiver?

I need to perform some software defined radio including customised modulation. Also the price for one kit should be at maximum $1000. I know there are some extremely expensive solutions out there, but that is unfortunately not an option.

Also a low delay from reception to transmission is necessary, thus the GNU Radio + USRP solution is not usable.

Update: I have taken a closer look at the USRP solution. From previous experience with the USRP + GNU Radio software I initially completely dismissed it as a solution in this case. I did that because I need to implement a packet radio protocol, thus I need precise bit synchronisation between input and output, and I need low delay that would allow me to transmit the next symbol following a received symbol, with a rate of 1000 kBaud.

From experience I know that the GNU Radio framework as default uses streaming chains of blocks, with very little synchronisation between TX and RX. Thus I suspect that using the USRP I would probably have to work directly with libusrp, and avoid most of the GNU Radio software. Am I mistaken in this?

Marcus Müller
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Bjarke Freund-Hansen
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5 Answers5

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I would suggest taking a look at the GNU Radio (gnuradio.org) SDR toolkit. Several projects (such as this one) have successfully used it for Bluetooth research.

There also exists development hardware designed for use with GNU Radio called the Universal Software Radio Peripheral which, with a suitable daughterboard for 2.4GHz development, costs around $1000.

zlt
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I'd like to second GNU Radio. Specifically you are looking for the USRP not the USRP2. The USRP2 is still in heavy development(and out of stock) while the USRP is a stable platform for GNU Radio. The USRP motherboard cost $700. The daughterboard transceiver you want is the RX2400(2.4-2.9GHz, TX=50mW). You can find both of these boards at Ettus Research

DarkAnt
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  • Hi. Please see the updated question. Can you confirm I would have to work directly with the libusrp to get the timing I want? Or would I have to develop directly on the FPGA of the USRP? In the latter case I guess the USRP2 is preferable, as it seems to be a lot easier to change the firmware on it. Also, I was completely sure the lib for USRP2 was completely merged into the latest release of GNU Radio and it was considered "production" ready, am I mistaken in this? – Bjarke Freund-Hansen Aug 12 '09 at 07:28
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Update six years later: USRPs come in the sub-1000$ range (B200/B210), they have very strict synchronization (ADC-rate accurate timed commands can control sampling) and coherency. GNU Radio supports these features through the gr-uhd interface.

Describing latency is quite a bit more complex, because it depends much more on how you deal with the data coming from any SDR frontend -- really, frontend latency isn't usually the problem when you try to do your processing on a general purpose OS, which makes no hard real-time guarantees. However, many just "hide" the latencies elegantly by employing timed commands and letting the frontend get the data early enough.

Marcus Müller
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I recommend HackRF One wich is a half-duplex tranceiver form 1MHz to 6GHz and also has huge comunity support but is half the price of USRP.

EDIT You now also have LimeSDR. It has 2 Rx and 2 Tx MIMO full-duplex channels and it's cheaper than tje HackRF. The only drawback may be the shipping time because at this moment there's no stock so you will have to pre-order.

FFY00
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We have successfully been using a professional development platform from Sundance Multiprocessor Technology (www.sundance.com). They do have some very affordable 2.4GHz/5GHz RF front-end solutions with integrated ADC/DAC and multiple DSP/FPGA processors. University offers: http://www.sundance.com/docs/mimo_lte_booklet.pdf

John Li
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