MSR Software Radio Academic Kit

Announcements

• Sora SDK ver 1.6 is now available!

  Kun Tan Thursday, March 22, 2012 6:22 AM

  We are pleased to announce the new release of Sora SDK ver 1.6 - the best Sora software we have released so far!

  You can download it from MSR Web site: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/ca9a93a1-2a38-4e3d-b87c-b7e8ddc46eae

  Sora SDK ver 1.6 newly introduces following prominent features:

  • New UMX API. Sora SDK ver 1.6 introduces a new set of UMX
    API that is more flexible, secure and has better performance.
  • UMX Reflection. Sora SDK ver 1.6 now supports a new reflection mechanism that allows the
    programmer easily integrates the user-mode software radio modem into the
    Windows network stack.
  • Brick library. One most prominent feature in Sora SDK ver 1.6 is the Brick library. Brick is a
    modular programming library for high-performance digital signal processing. It is easy to program,
    flexible and highly extensible.
  • UMXSDRab utility. UMXSDRab is a powerful SDR 802.11 modem
    based on UMX reflection. It supports both client mode and adhoc mode. So it can
    easily connect to a commercial 802.11 AP or device. UMXSDRab has an easy-to-use
    interactive interface to configure and monitor the status of SDR modem
    application.
  • DbgPlot tool. DbgPlot is a versatile tool that allows a
    program to dynamically generate various graphics in real-time. It is a very
    useful tool for real-time monitoring or debugging DSP programs.

  For updated Sora manual, please find at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=160799

  The Brick Specification can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=160800

  The DbgPlot manual can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=160801

  Thank you and enjoy,

  Sora core team

  MSR Aisa

• Sora SDK version 1.5 is now available!

  Kun Tan Wednesday, September 07, 2011 4:04 AM

  We are pleased to announce the new release of Sora SDK ver 1.5.

  You can download it from MSR Web site: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/ca9a93a1-2a38-4e3d-b87c-b7e8ddc46eae

  Sora SDK ver 1.5 substaintially changes the implementation of the Sora core library and drivers, providing programmers with a more flexible, robust, and friendly developing environment to build powerful SDR applications. It also fixes almost all known bugs in the previous versions.

  The key features of Sora SDK ver 1.5 includes:

  • Full compatible with Windows XP. Previous Sora versions have several compatibility issues across different variants of Windows XP due to an implementation limitation. Sora SDK ver 1.5 has removed this limitation and is compatible to all Win XP versions by implementing a new scheduler that dynamically assigns best cores to the time-critical threads. While a real-time thread may run on different cores, its execution is not interrupted. The new scheduler also greatly improves the responsiveness of the system compared to previous versions.
  • Full-fledged User-Mode Extension (UMX) API. The UMX API is first introduced in Sora SDK ver 1.1. The new Sora SDK ver 1.5 has completed a full-fledged UMX API to build powerful SDR applications. A new resource isolation and collection mechanism has been implemented to protect the system against unsafe applications. Zero-copy mechanisms are deployed when accessing both hardware Tx and Rx buffers. Therefore, the overhead and latency of sending/receiving signals in user-mode are reduced to minimum. A new UMX-based 802.11a/b/g decoder is included in the SDK to illustrate the usage of the new UMX API.
  • Enriched tools. Sora SDK ver 1.5 comes with a set of useful tools for SDR development. The package contains software oscilloscopes for both 802.11b DSSS and 802.11a/g OFDM. It also includes a handy Hardware Verification Tool to test your hardware and also help you find the best parameter settings.

  Thank you and enjoy,

  Sora core team

  MSR Aisa

• Sora Manual is available!

  Kun Tan Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:47 AM

  Hi,

  It takes quite some time for the team to edit a full document for the Sora platform.

  And now, here it comes. The latest Sora Manual contains the latest information of the Sora platform, including the basic usage, tools, programming samples and references of APIs.

  We hope it will give you a handy reference to understand Sora better and help you get hands on it.

  We'd say the manual may still contain many mistakes and miss some information. So if you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know.

  You can download the manual here at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=144847

  Thanks,

  The Sora Core Team

   

• Sora Dump File Format

  Kun Tan Wednesday, December 01, 2010 1:13 PM

  Dut tool or dot11config can capture a snapshot of the wireless channel and store the raw I/Q samples into a file located at c:\. The post explains the format of the dump file.

  The dump file is basically a binary file that contains an array of RX descriptors. A RX descriptor (RX_DESC) is defined as follows:

  typedef union ___RX_DESC
  {
  #pragma warning(disable: 4200 4214 4201)
      struct
      {
          union{
              struct
              {
                  UCHAR   __IsValid     : 1;
                  UCHAR   __IsScanned   : 1;
                  UCHAR   __Reserved    : 6;
              };
              UCHAR   __Flags;
          } u;

          UCHAR    __Reserved2;
          USHORT   __DataSize;
          UCHAR    __Reserved3[12];
          UCHAR    __bData[0];
      };
     
      COMPLEX16    Samples[SORA_RX_SIGNAL_UNIT_COMPLEX16_NUM];
      COMPLEX8     SmallSamples[SORA_RX_SIGNAL_UNIT_COMPLEX8_NUM];
  #pragma warning(default: 4200 4214 4201)
  }RX_DESC, *PRX_DESC;

  The signal block is of 128 Bytes, with a header (RX_DESC) and 28 complex samples (COMPLEX16).

  For detailed information of signal blocks, please refore _rx_manager.h.

• Welcome to the MSR Software Radio Academic Kit forum!

  Qiufeng YINMicrosoft EmployeeThursday, December 31, 2009 5:01 AM

  Hello and welcome to the MSR Software Radio Academic Kit forum!

  MSR Software Radio Academic Kit forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of MSR Software Radio Academic Kit customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others. Start by posting software radio related questions in the forum and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

  If you have any suggestions or feedbacks to MSR Software Radio Academic Kit, please feel free to post in our forums.
  
  You can also visit http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/sora/ for lastest news, release and document of MSR Software Radio Academic Kit.