How can I start modelling radio links using Labview 2011?

[Patel33]

I need to model a couple of 60Ghz radios in an interface. Each radio is connected to a seperate computer for data analysis. So I need to create an interface which connects to these computers to display the data from these radios. I'm pretty inexperienced with this software so any useful information would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[JamesKent]

Hi Patel,

What sort of communications medium are you seeking to connect the computers? A 60 GHz radio will output an extremely large amount of data so it probably isn't possible for you to stream this in real-time over some communications medium. Are you doing continuous or finite acquisition off the radios? You could try buffering the data and then sending it over a network using functions such as Network Streams, which you can find information about here:

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/12267/en/

Best Regards,

James Kent

[Patel33]

Hi James,

It would be continuous acqusition of the radios.

[JamesKent]

Hi Patel,

With 60 GHz radios it would be likely impossible to stream the raw data from PC to PC as there is no normal communications medium that can transmit that sort of throughput, and it is quite unlikely the computer will be able to keep up with dealing with the raw data off that. If you are sending data over the radios you could try demodulating the data and sending that through, however this also depends on the throughput and amount of data

Network Streams are a fast, lossless way of transferring data, but this all depends on your  throughput. Can you give me a number or benchmark of the expected throughput required? What radios are you using and how do they connect to the computer?

Best Regards,

James Kent

[Patel33]

Hi James,

I am using Sub10 radios and a Dual Data Collection Tool has been used to collect the data from the radios. The radios are connected to the computer by using an ip address. So I need to somehow connect to these computers from a central PC. I must have remote access of the radio PC's and have persission for mapping drives to a file repository.

Thanks

[JamesKent]

Hi Patel,

By remote access, do you mean you need full access as in a remote desktop connection or something more limited would be acceptable? You could try running a web-server on your central computer and then configuring a LabVIEW application on each of the computer to post results back which can then be processed, and this is probably the best idea and will work across a large variety of network structures.

Alternatively you could push the data directly to the file repository if it is network accessible and use an application on the central computer to sort through the data and parse it.

However if there is a third party application you need to control you will likely need something such as remote desktop to be able to configure it. 

If the radios are connected by an ip address, can you not connect it to a network and have them all read by a single computer, or are the computers not on the same network?

Best Regards,

James Kent

[Patel33]

Hi James,

No, I don't need full remote access so limited access would be okay. Would the web server work for this?

The PC's connected to the radios are all on different networks, which is why i figured each would have to be linked individually. How would that alternative method of pushing the data directly work?

Thanks

[JamesKent]

Hi Patel,

Yes a web server would work well for this especially as you are on multiple different networks, you could host a web-server and get client computers to post results back to it, but be wary of the amount of data you are posting, and you will need to do some testing to find out how much data needs to be posted back and forth as this will depend on your network setup/link speed etc.

Best Regards,

James Kent