GNU Radio

Manu T S - manu.ts@ee.iitb.ac.in
January 16, 2014
Disclaimer
This document is in no way a comprehensive guide on how to use GNU Radio. The author gives no
guarantee on the authenticity of the contents. Contents are largely blatant copies of web-pages on GNU
Radio. Please report errors, technical or otherwise, to manu.ts@ee.iitb.ac.in.
1 Introduction
GNU Radio is a free & open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks
to implement software radios. It can be used with readily-available low-cost external RF hardware to
create software-dened radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. It is widely used
in hobbyist, academic and commercial environments to support both wireless communications research
and real-world radio systems.
2 Getting Started
If youve never touched GNU Radio before, this document will get you started with a running installation
of GNU Radio and will show you how to take your rst steps with this software radio tool.
2.1 Software Radio / Software Dened Radio
The terms software radio and software dened radio mean the same in this document. We use both
terms interchangeably. software radio is a radio system which performs the required signal processing
in software instead of using dedicated integrated circuits in hardware. The benet is that since software
can be easily replaced in the radio system, the same hardware can be used to create many kinds of radios
for many dierent transmission standards; thus, one software radio can used for a variety of applications!
2.2 Where does GNU Radio come in
GNU Radio provides blocks that performs all the signal processing. One can use it to write applications
to receive data out of digital streams or to push data into digital streams, which is then transmitted using
hardware. GNU Radio has lters, channel codes, synchronization elements, equalizers, demodulators,
vocoders, decoders, and many other elements (in the GNU Radio jargon, we call these elements blocks)
which are typically found in radio systems. More importantly, it includes a method of connecting these
blocks and then manages how data is passed from one block to another. Extending GNU Radio is also
quite easy; if you nd a specic block that is missing, you can quickly create and add it.
Since GNU Radio is software, it can only handle digital data. Usually, complex baseband samples
are the input data type for receivers and the output data type for transmitters. Analog hardware is then
used to shift the signal to the desired center frequency. That requirement aside, any data type can be
passed from one block to another - be it bits, bytes, vectors, bursts or more complex data types.
GNU Radio applications are primarily written using the Python programming language, while the
supplied, performance-critical signal processing blocks are implemented in C++ using processor oating
point extensions, where available. Thus, the developer is able to implement real-time, high-throughput
radio systems in a simple-to-use, rapid-application-development environment.
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2.3 Installing GNU Radio
With the proxy-less Internet access and scripts to automate the installation, installing GNU Radio has
become a childs play. In the past that was not the case. That said, there are some technicalities that
we should be careful about.
2.3.0 Running GNU Radio from LiveDVD
Download the DVD from http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/GNURadioLiveDVD.
Burn it onto a DVD/pendrive and boot from it. This allows you to run GNU Radio without installing
it. We will have a copy of the image, and you can take it from us if needed.
2.3.1 Installing GNU Radio on Windows
There are two options.
Install the precompiled binaries from Ettus Research. Refer http://gnuradio.org/redmine/
projects/gnuradio/wiki/BinaryPackages#Binaries-from-Ettus-Research-Linux-Windows
Build GNU Radio from source.- Help yourself :)
2.3.2 Installing GNU Radio on Linux
There are many options.
Install precompiled binaries that come with the distribution. For example in an Ubuntu system
sudo apt-get install gnuradio should do it. If you are using Fedora/CentOS sudo yum install
gnuradio should work. If your package manager does not nd those binaries, you can install from
source. By installing binaries, you are likely to end up with an older version of GNU Radio.
Install from source using build-gnuradio script. This is known to work for Ubuntu, redhat, fedora,
Debian, mint and OpenSuse. This scripts automates all the things that one would do if s/he were
to install GNU Radio from source. Make sure you are connected to Internet. Make sure you have
logged in at internet.iitb.ac.in. Update your package-list before you proceed. For example in
Ubuntu run
sudo apt-get update
Open a terminal and run the following command.
wget http://www.sbrac.org/les/build-gnuradio && chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio
This takes about 2-4 hours. Stay patient and see if it works. If it works, then you should have a
working installation of GNU Radio.
It is possible that wget command does not work. In that case, open the page http://www.sbrac.
org/files/build-gnuradio, and save the page to your computer. Then, open a terminal, cd to
the directory in which you saved the page and run the following command.
chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio
The last time (Jan 10, 2014) I tried it on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit, this thing did not work in one
go, because one of the dependency (git-core) was failing. These are the steps that I followed.
mkdir /home/user/build
Saved the page http://www.sbrac.org/les/build-gnuradio in /home/user/build directory
cd /home/user/build
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git git-core
chmod a+x build-gnuradio
./build-gnuradio
gnuradio-companion (if the window pops up, you are done)
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Install using PyBOMBS. This is now the ocial tool for installation. This installs GNU Radio to
a local directory (a directory within your home directory or any directory with write permission is
good enough.) With this you will have to export environment variables(PKG_CONFIG_PATH,
PYTHONPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH) on each terminal you want to run GNU Radio. Dont
worry, it is quite easy. Follow the steps given below.
We are going to download the source to /home/user/build and install GNU Radio in /home/user/install.
By build directory we mean /home/user/build and by install prex we mean /home/user/install.
You have to replace user with your username.
sudo apt-get update (or whichever suits you)
sudo apt-get install git (or whichever suits you)
mkdir /home/user/build
mkdir /home/user/install
cd /home/user/build
git clone https://github.com/pybombs/pybombs.git
cd pybombs
./pybombs cong (When asked for install prex enter /home/user/install. You are free to
change other options if you know what you are doing. Else just press Enter for all other
options.)
./pybombs install gnuradio (and hope it works.)
./pybombs env
cd /home/user/install
source setup_env.sh
./bin/gnuradio_companion (if the window pops up, you are done)
Remember, with the above installation you have to run source /home/user/install/setup_env.sh
every time you want to run GNU Radio application. This command sets the environment variables
for you.
Do it all by yourself. The above two bullets showed how we can make things easy. You are free to
do it all by yourself. Download the source, install prerequisites, compile and install. :)
3 Now What?
We hope to ll in this section with some basic examples very soon. For now, play around with GNU Radio.
Visit http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki to know more about GNU Radio.
4 Need Help?
Feel free to email me for any help. During day I would be available in GL-502(opposite to VLSI Lab),
GG Building. In case you need any help, just walk in. GNU Radio has a very helpful community. For
any help you can put a mail to discuss-gnuradio@gnu.org mailing list.
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