Hi all,
I have a relatively high level question regarding gnuradio and
software radio in general. Is it a fair generalization to say that
gnuradio is operating at the application layer and is essentially
emulating a physical layer implementation (or the implementation of
other lower layer protocols)? For example, if I have a link between
two USRPs (more specifically, N series USRPs), the digitally sampled
received data comes in on the ethernet NIC and moves up the stack to
the software radio "application." The signal processing that would
typically be done in lower layers is then handled by the application.
The second part of my question is, given a flow graph in gnuradio,
what sort of steps would be necessary to "push it back down the stack"
or implement in a chipset such that it can be used as an interface in
a typical network stack? Is this something that anyone using gnuradio
has considered or should I assume the next step would involve
re-implementation?
NOTE: This is by no means for a commercial product, but rather for
demonstration. My research has led me to use gnuradio for some proof
of concept implementations and I'm curious how much additional effort
would be required to port the work to a practical device - for
example, implementation on a smart phone. (you can read this as "will
it cause me to postpone graduation a few weeks? months? years?")
Thanks in advance - any input is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Michael Rahaim
PhD Candidate
Boston University, Boston, MA