Software defined radio (SDR) platforms increasingly require powerful SDR analysis software to move from raw ADC samples to actionable RF signal insights. High-performance FPGA hardware is only part of the solution; engineers also need efficient SDR data acquisition, real-time signal processing, visualization, and RF signal analysis.
The iWave SDR Analysis Tool was built to close that gap: a single desktop application that spans configuration, live acquisition, and real-time signal analysis, regardless of which physical interface or compute target sits underneath it. It provides a unified graphical interface that simplifies this complete workflow from initial platform configuration and data acquisition to real-time signal visualization and detailed signal analysis.
The tool is structured around two key stages:
- System Configuration – Configure the target platform, data interface, processing system, channels, and capture parameters.
- Software Defined Radio (SDR) Analysis Workstation – Control acquisition, configure the signal-processing chain, visualize the captured signal, and analyse signal characteristics.
SDR Data Acquisition and Real-Time Signal Analysis
Launch Configuration Platform and Data Acquisition
This view answers: where am I acquiring from, over what link, into what processor, and in what format?
- Platform Detail: Selects the processing board AMD RFSOC ZU47DR or Altera Agilex® 9 etc
- Framework Interface: Selects the high speed link to the host: PCIe, Ethernet or Aurora. PCIe gives the highest throughput, Ethernet suits remote sensors, Aurora is a lean FPGA to FPGA link.
- Data Processing System: Selects CPU or GPU processing. CPU is simple and predictable; GPU offload handles wide FFTs and many channels faster.
- Number of Channels: Sets how many acquisition channels run in the session.
- Data Type: Sets the sample format on the wire, such as complex 16 bit I/Q. This fixes the bits per sample and the required link bandwidth.
- Sampling Rate: Sets the acquisition rate in MSPS (200 MSPS by default). This fixes the bandwidth you can observe.
- Start / Stop Capture: Starts the data path and stops it cleanly.
SDR Signal Processing and RF Data Visualization
Once data is flowing, this view shapes it and shows it.
- Decimation Value: Lowers the sample rate and narrows the view to the band of interest and cuts data volume, without losing the signal you need.
- Interpolation Value: Raises the sample rate by adding filtered samples. Used for signal reconstruction and rate conversion between blocks running at different rates.
- Sampling Rate: Controls the acquisition rate in MSPS.
- NCO Frequency: The Numerically Controlled Oscillator is a digital tuner. It shifts the chosen part of the spectrum down to baseband (digital down conversion), so you choose which frequency you look at, accurately and without drift.
- Start / Stop Capture: Holds, resumes or ends the live processing without closing the session.
- Save Capture: Stores the data for offline analysis, debug, validation or later reference. Saved files reopen in the same tool.
What the Running Tool Looks Like
Once a session is launched, the analysis workspace brings together four synchronized views and a live measurement panel:
- Time Domain (I/Q): raw I and Q traces plotted against time, giving an immediate view of waveform shape and amplitude.
- Spectrum (FFT): a live FFT with configurable size (2048 in the default view) and windowing (Blackman Harris), automatically marking peak level, noise floor, SNR, and occupied bandwidth.
- Waterfall/Spectrogram: a scrolling history of the spectrum over time, useful for spotting intermittent or drifting signals that a single FFT snapshot would miss.
- Constellation (I/Q): a real-time I/Q scatter plot with EVM, RMS, phase, and DC offset readouts key for verifying modulation quality.
- Measurements: This section tabulates per channel signal parameters (peak level, peak frequency, noise floor, SNR, SFDR, ENOB, occupied bandwidth, channel power, RMS level) side by side across all active channels, alongside a detected peaks table.
PCIe and Ethernet SDR Data Acquisition
- At the core of the design is a dual framework architecture that lets the same application communicate with hardware over either PCIe or Ethernet, depending on the deployment requirements.
- In the PCIe framework, a single link carries both control and data traffic. This keeps the system simple and minimizes latency, making it ideal for a workstation located next to the FPGA card.
- DMA transfers can move samples directly into host memory, enabling efficient high-speed SDR data acquisition.
Why High-Speed SDR Data Acquisition Matters
The value of this tool isn’t any single measurement or plot spectrum analyzers and constellation displays are well understood building blocks. The value is in how the pieces are unified:
One tool, multiple transports. Switching from a PCIe attached card to a 100 – 400G Ethernet attached chassis doesn’t mean switching tools or relearning a workflow.
Configuration and analysis are cleanly separated, so the GUI stays focused at each stage instead of overwhelming the user with every parameter at once.
Live telemetry is a first class citizen. DMA throughput, measured sample rate, and buffer status are always visible, not buried in a log file critical when diagnosing drops or throughput bottlenecks in high rate captures.
CPU/GPU flexibility is decided at launch, letting the same acquisition front end scale from lightweight validation runs to GPU accelerated processing pipelines.
The iWave SDR Analysis Tool provides a unified software environment for high speed RF data acquisition, real time signal processing, visualization, and SDR signal analysis across FPGA based platforms.
The two stage workflow System Configuration followed by the SDR Analysis Workstation provides a simple and intuitive user experience while retaining the flexibility required for advanced SDR applications.
By combining PCIe/Ethernet/Aurora connectivity, CPU/GPU processing, configurable DSP functions, multi channel acquisition, real time visualization, automated measurements, and data recording, the framework can serve as a common analysis platform across multiple iWave SDR and RF data acquisition solutions.
This architecture also provides a scalable foundation for future capabilities such as advanced modulation analysis, channelization, digital beamforming, GPU accelerated signal processing, automated signal classification, and integration with additional direct RF FPGA platforms.
