Disclosure: I haven't looked at your code.

0 values can be presented in GNU Radio when you use history, because if
your history is N, the first N-1 items are going to be zeros.

Anyway, regarding your comment "it is not expected that a device/stream
would ever spit out zero values.",
I did have 0 values from a USRP device, see discussion in
http://lists.ettus.com/pipermail/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com/2017-October/026851.html
.



On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 6:52 AM Anshul Thakur <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Michael, Marcus,
>
> Right now, the code is a work in progress so I haven't made a git
> repository out of it. However, I have it on dropbox. Here's the link to the
> source folder(p1_detector_impl.cc is the source in question):
>
> *https://www.dropbox.com/sh/blfmxsaidrkh28t/AAArp8IHavzCGFlJs6E6-Hrca?dl=0
> <https://www.dropbox.com/sh/blfmxsaidrkh28t/AAArp8IHavzCGFlJs6E6-Hrca?dl=0>*
>
> As for Marcus's question regarding why use a circular buffer?
>
> It isn't exactly a circular buffer now, but more of a shift register. The
> reasons are as follows:
> 1. I needed running sums for correlations in B-Branch and C-Branch
> correlators, and Power Sums (for average power) to normalize them. Then, I
> also needed a finite delay buffer to delay the C-Branch before it gets
> multiplied with the B-Branch.
> 2. It kind of carried over from the last implementation attempt:
>
> Assertion: If a peak is detected after the multiplication, the signal
> boundary is 1024 samples behind that index.
>
> Once the correlations crossed a threshold (the code entered state=1), *instead
> of looking back, I then needed to look forward to see if it were a false
> alarm or not*. So, I compute the correlations across all available
> current inputs and try to find a peak. If a peak is found, enter state=3
> where we do a correlation with the carrier distribution sequence after FFT
> of all signals of interest. So, here, I not only needed just the single
> value (the running sum), but the entire state of the delay register and the
> B-Branch correlator.
>
> I hope I am able to convey the reason for implementing one myself.
>
> In the current implementation, I make an assumption that the threshold is
> so high that only the desired signals would cross it (100-150 times the
> average). So I skip the state=1 logic and directly go into state=2 logic of
> aggressively doing a FFT and correlation with the CDS.
>
> However, I don't think this has a binding on the incoming values. Use of
> buffers is internal to the implementation, I am just printing out the
> current values as they arrive.
>
> For example, when I use the test file in 'make test', the values fed in
> are non-zero from t=1. However, when using gnuradio-companion, t=56 line is
> where the file source starts yielding proper inputs to my block. The stdout
> prints of the initial values in both GRC and make tests are attached. The
> gnuradio-companion version has my first 55 samples zeroed and the 56th
> input onward is then same for both.
>
>
> P.S.: The source stream is a 1.2 Gigs file, so haven't uploaded it. If
> you'd like I can do that too. It was generated by using a DVB-T2 Tx block
> and writing the output into a file sink.
>
> Warm regards,
> Anshul Thakur
>
> On 31 March 2018 at 02:27, Müller, Marcus (CEL) <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Anshul,
>>
>> you shouldn't have to have your own buffer for a running sum – can you
>> explain why you're doing that?
>> A running sum can trivially be implemented with the IIR filter block
>> with Feed-Forward taps (1,) and Feed-back taps (1,0)!
>> Where does in a running sum does a division take place?
>>
>> > (a) Why am I getting the initial zero samples from the file block in
>> > gnuradio_companion and non-zero values when using a vector_source in
>> > unit tests?
>>
>> If these zeros are not in the file you're reading, your block has a
>> bug!
>>
>>
>> > (b) What can I do about it (here specifically as a fix to the
>> > situation, and a general guideline to always remember)?
>>
>> good question, but we'd need to know your code, your motivation for a
>> circular buffer, and why you're implementing a running sum yourself!
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Marcus
>>
>> On Fri, 2018-03-30 at 23:19 +0530, Anshul Thakur wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I used a circular buffer of finite size to keep the past 'N' power
>> > values of the sample stream in my block as a part of creating a
>> > running sum. This buffer is initialized to 0 in the constructor.
>> > The running sum of powers is used to compute the average power used
>> > in computing signal correlation.
>> >
>> > I have a capture stream (cfile) to test the operation of the block.
>> > The test case uses a vector_source_c block to read the contents of
>> > the file into memory. The unit tests pass without error.
>> >
>> > However, when I use the block in a flowgraph in that reads the same
>> > file from a file source block gnuradio_companion, I am getting the
>> > first few sample values as 0 which cause a divide by zero
>> > problem. This messes up the rest of the running sum. I don't want to
>> > put an 'if' block that checks for the zero condition as it is not
>> > expected that a device/stream would ever spit out zero values.
>> >
>> > (a) Why am I getting the initial zero samples from the file block in
>> > gnuradio_companion and non-zero values when using a vector_source in
>> > unit tests?
>> >
>> > (b) What can I do about it (here specifically as a fix to the
>> > situation, and a general guideline to always remember)?
>> >
>> > I am using GNURadio version 3.7.12.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Anshul
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
>> > [email protected]
>> > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
>
>
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