Hi,
I'm student, CEH, CCNA, networking security etc. Hope to one day be CTO. I want to invest in SDR for wide RF spectrum analysis. Mainly LTE and Wifi. But not limited. Still want access to voice communications such as HAM. But I'm new to SDR. During my search, this forum kept popping up. So I think it's a good place to post this question.
When I started this search it seems I would need three or more SDR to cover the usable RF spectrum. I don't want that many devices. I want to invest in one device, one eco-system, for multi-purpose. Also for portability. And for many years to come I hope. This is big investment for me. Maybe one day I can afford "Per Vices’ Cyan" but I think it's $100,000. So for now I'll stick to 0 to 6000mhz, under $2000 hopefully.
I saw this post https://forums.ni.com/t5/USRP-Software-Radio/USRP-N210-and-WiFi-signal/td-p/3549434 which basically says that maybe 210 is too slow for processing wifi?
But that was 2016. And then this post (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/sdr-platform-up-to-6-ghz-ettus-usrp-b200-any-experienceal...) mentions that "As of December 30, 2020, you can run a full IEEE 802.11 compatible software defined radio modem on a bladeRF 2.0 micro xA9"
So for my purposes should I be going the route of this BladeRF 2.0 micro xA9? And does that mean the xA4 and xA5 are too slow for wifi? Why?
But then more confusingly over here (https://hackaday.com/2018/08/30/bladerf-2-0-micro-is-smaller-more-powerful/) This man in comments mentions "
An AD-FMCOMMS3-EBZ is about the same price, about $700 or so IIRC.
Sure, you need to add the Zedboard or other board with a FMC port, so there’s another $400 or so. But you don’t need a PC – just add monitor, keyboard and mouse, and the ARM9 IP core on the Zync gives you everything all in one place as a self-contained solution. And you’ve got LEDs, switches, PMOD ports etc, an FMC port, ethernet, audio etc – everything you need for other FPGA development projects. Nice and flexible and not that much more expensive, all things considered, compared to these single-purpose AD9361 boards."
And I keep seeing this "ZedBoard" mentioned here on NI, which I am not familiar with other than it's a SOC? And lab view? What is lab view? Is that for programming the SOC? Should I be going this last route? Instead of an USRP 210 or BladeRF 2.0 xA9?
Or if I'm going to require years of learning to get into this zedboard thing, is the BladeRF 2.0 xA9 superior to the USRP 210? Did the BladeRF newest version dethrone the 210?
Sorry for such an in-depth question. I did start this research steadily months ago. It started with thinking I need a few different RTL-SDRs with different frequency range. And now it's seems I've hit a very tall technical wall. I hope this forum can help me clear it up. Thank you.
