I think you’d mentioned you have a spectrum analyzer. What does it have to say 
about the SNR of your signal?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 8, 2020, at 2:41 PM, Lukas Haase via USRP-users 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Marino,
>  
> Thank you for confirming the -139dBm/Hz. Indeed, with my sampling rate of 5 
> MSps, this is -139+dB10(5e6)=-72dBm, which was exactly my prediction from my 
> initial message.
>  
> For the RX line noise floor, I am sure it's the usual -169dBm/Hz (5dB NF) ... 
> at least if I disconnect the TX->RX connection, that's what I get.
>  
> Thanks again for your input! If you could think of anything else I could try 
> to narrow down things please let me know.
>  
> Thanks,
> Lukas
>  
>  
>  
>  
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 08. Dezember 2020 um 03:29 Uhr
> Von: "cyberphox" <[email protected]>
> An: "Lukas Haase" <[email protected]>
> Betreff: Re: [USRP-users] UBX160 TX "noise figure"?
> I work out the TX noise floor is around -139dBm/Hz at roughly similar step 
> attenuator setting, this results in similar Snr you predict 
>  
> Your setup seems fine unfortunately at the moment I can’t think of what else 
> at the moment. 
>  
> Are you sure about the RX line up noise floor? 
>  
> Will keep head scratching ...
>  
> Have a good day!
>  
> Marino 
>  
>  
>  
>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 at 18:00, Lukas Haase <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Marino,
>>  
>> I don't think it's a BW/RBW related issue ... My measurements (noise, signal 
>> etc.) are pretty consistent otherwise.
>> I think I am doing things right in my setup.
>>  
>>  
>> That's why I am asking if maybe something is wrong with my original question 
>> about the "TX SNR" of the USRP. Maybe our conclusions on the noise figure in 
>> the TX are wrong?
>>  
>> Thanks,
>> Lukas
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> Gesendet: Montag, 07. Dezember 2020 um 04:47 Uhr
>> 
>> Von: "cyberphox" <[email protected]>
>> An: "Lukas Haase" <[email protected]>
>> Betreff: Re: [USRP-users] UBX160 TX "noise figure"?
>> The power remaining from the phase noise skirt contributes but even without 
>> it as you show is still quite a lot different. It’s not a measurement 
>> bandwidth/rbw related issue?
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 at 08:56, Lukas Haase <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Hi Marino,
>>>  
>>> Ok, so when my TX is set to 20dB and the full range is 31.5, then the 
>>> attenuator should be set to 11.5dB.
>>>  
>>> How I get the information from my plots:
>>> The SNR=38.7dB value is taken by taking the DFT and setting all bins but 
>>> the signal bin to zero and calculating 20*log(std(ideal)/std(ideal-orig)). 
>>> Signal period is integer multiple of sampling period and leakage does not 
>>> exist (at least to the degree it could be relevant). Of course, this SNR 
>>> includes everything, incl. phase noise skirt
>>> The orange signal is generated by adding white Gaussian noise to the ideal 
>>> signal such that it has XdB SNR. I sweep over multiple SNR values until I 
>>> get visual correspondance. From my plot you can see that the white noise 
>>> floor is this signal (yellow) matches the received signal (red). The SNR 
>>> for the yellow signal is 50dB. Therefore I can conclude that the SNR of the 
>>> signal is 50dB if I only take thermal noise into account
>>> Yes, I have measured the noise floor with signal off. It matches exactly 
>>> with my expectations (-102dBm at RX gain=20)
>>>  
>>> Thanks,
>>> Lukas
>>>  
>>> Gesendet: Montag, 07. Dezember 2020 um 03:46 Uhr
>>> 
>>> Von: "cyberphox" <[email protected]>
>>> An: "Lukas Haase" <[email protected]>
>>> Betreff: Re: [USRP-users] UBX160 TX "noise figure"?
>>> Hi Lukas,
>>>  
>>> Thanks for your reply! 
>>>  
>>> I was meaning the attenuator of the TX before the amplifiers. 
>>>  
>>> Also from your plots were do you take your noise floor from? Are you 
>>> reading from the top of the phase noise skirt?  
>>>  
>>> Have you measured the noise floor with signal off?  
>>>  
>>> Also it is worth doing this measurement with different power levels just in 
>>> case you have some non-linearity  issues
>>>  
>>> Kind regards 
>>> Marino
>>>  
>>>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 at 08:33, Lukas Haase <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Hi Marino,
>>>>  
>>>> Which digital attenuator do you mean?
>>>>  
>>>> The 46.43dB attenuation that I use in the TX-RX loopback is just composed 
>>>> of static, passive attenuators
>>>> The receive gain is set to 20dB. Hence I assume I do not make use of the 
>>>> 6dB "digital gain" in the ADC and from the remaining 31.6dB gain I use 20. 
>>>> Hence I the "digital attenuator" should be 11.5dB if that answers your 
>>>> question?
>>>> At a receive gain of 20dB, the noise figure is ~5dB, according to specs 
>>>> and measurements. -174+5+dB10(5e6)=-102dBm which is exactly what I measure 
>>>> without a signal applied.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Lukas
>>>>  
>>>> Gesendet: Montag, 07. Dezember 2020 um 03:23 Uhr
>>>> Von: "cyberphox" <[email protected]>
>>>> An: "Lukas Haase" <[email protected]>
>>>> Cc: "Marcus D. Leech" <[email protected]>, [email protected]
>>>> 
>>>> Betreff: Re: [USRP-users] UBX160 TX "noise figure"?
>>>> Hi Lukas,
>>>>  
>>>> What setting do you have the digital attenuator set to?
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>> Kind regards
>>>>  
>>>> Marino
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 at 02:05, Lukas Haase via USRP-users 
>>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Hi Marcus,
>>>>>  
>>>>> Thanks again!
>>>>>  
>>>>> I did now the following experiment: I connected TX to RX back-to-back 
>>>>> with 46.43dB attenuation in between. I set TX gain and RX gain to 20dB 
>>>>> and transmit a single CW at -3dBFS.
>>>>> This means my output power is Pout=11.44dBm (cross checked with spectrum 
>>>>> analyzer) and on RX I sould have Pin=-34.99dBm. Indeed, calculating the 
>>>>> RMS of the received signal and converting to dBm, I get Pin=-35.0224dBm. 
>>>>> Spot on!
>>>>>  
>>>>> The red line is what I receive on the PSD (blue is the TX that I send):
>>>>>  
>>>>> <mime-attachment.png>
>>>>>  
>>>>> As you can see from the annotation, the measured "SNR" of the received 
>>>>> signal is only 38.7dB. I think this is mainly caused by the phase noise 
>>>>> skirt (and potentially the I/Q image).
>>>>> In order to keep only consider thermal noise, I add random noise to the 
>>>>> original CW (using randn(...)+1i*randn(...) in MATLAB) until it matches 
>>>>> roughly the white noise floor of the received signal. It's SNRoutput=50dB 
>>>>> (yellow line).
>>>>>  
>>>>> Now, according to our discussion below, at Gtx=20, we should have 
>>>>> SNRoutput=72dB (assuming thermal noise only).
>>>>>  
>>>>> Where could the 22dB difference in SNR come from?
>>>>>  
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>> Lukas
>>>>>  
>>>>>  
>>>>> PS: I am aware of phase noise, DC offsets, I/Q imbalance etc. But as you 
>>>>> can see from my plot, I am only considerung thermal noise. The thermal 
>>>>> noise of the receiver should be orders of magnitude lower (at least 
>>>>> -102dBm) so the receiver noise should not limit the results either.
>>>>>  
>>>>>  
>>>>> Gesendet: Montag, 30. November 2020 um 17:08 Uhr
>>>>> Von: "Marcus D. Leech" <[email protected]>
>>>>> 
>>>>> An: "Lukas Haase" <[email protected]>
>>>>> Cc: [email protected]
>>>>> Betreff: Re: [USRP-users] UBX160 TX "noise figure"?
>>>>> On 11/30/2020 01:54 PM, Lukas Haase wrote:
>>>>> Hi Marcus,
>>>>>  
>>>>> That makes sense, thanks.
>>>>>  
>>>>> Would you be willing to confirm if what I am doing here is correct?
>>>>>  
>>>>> <mime-attachment.png>
>>>>>  
>>>>> To first order, the DAC has an SNR of 98dB (16 bit). Then I use Fries' 
>>>>> equation to get the NF of the following stages (for the filter and the 
>>>>> attenuator, the noise figure is equal to its attenuation). The NF is 
>>>>> dominated by the 2nd and third term.
>>>>> Then I subtract the NF from the SNR which gives me an output SNR 
>>>>> somewhere between 92dB and 67dB. Does that sound right?
>>>>>  
>>>>> <mime-attachment.png>
>>>>>  
>>>>>  
>>>>> For the attenuator term, just assign it a NF (in dB) of (31.5 - TXGAIN).
>>>>> 
>>>>> The noise figure of an attenuator is just the attenuation 
>>>>> value--similarly for the filter.  Just pretend it's a fixed attenuator 
>>>>> with 0 gain.
>>>>> 
>>>>> So the 'noise figure' after the DAC is just  2+(31.5 - TXGAIN) then 
>>>>> factor in the gains and noise figures of the amplifiers.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>  
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> USRP-users mailing list
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>> http://lists.ettus.com/mailman/listinfo/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com
> _______________________________________________
> USRP-users mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.ettus.com/mailman/listinfo/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com
_______________________________________________
USRP-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ettus.com/mailman/listinfo/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com

Reply via email to