A LOW-COST DESKTOP SOFTWARE DEFINED
RADIO DESIGN ENVIRONMENT USING
MATLAB, SIMULINK, AND THE RTL -SDR
Example Design Of Receive Side Of Garage Remote Control For Reply Attack
A LOW-COST DESKTOP SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO DESIGN ENVIRONMENT USING MATLAB, SIMULINK, AND THE RTL -SDR
1. A LOW-COST DESKTOP SOFTWARE DEFINED
RADIO DESIGN ENVIRONMENT USING
MATLAB, SIMULINK, AND THE RTL-SDR
Omid Abolghasemi
2. AGENDA
•What Is RTL-SDR
•RTL-SDR Parameters
•RTL-SDR Overall Diagram
•RTL-SDR Hardware
•The main components of the RTL-SDR USB device.
•MATLAB And Simulink Package For RTL-SDR
•RTL-SDR block in Simulink and the configuring parameters
•Spectral Analysis with RTL-SDR Radio in Simulink.
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3. WHAT IS RTL-SDR
•very cheap USB Dongle that can be used as a computer based radio scanner. (which
comes with a simple but useable omnidirectional antenna)
•The origins of RTL-SDR stem from mass produced DVB-T TV tuner dongles that were
based on the RTL2832U chipset.
•a custom software driver which allowed the DVB-T TV tuner to be converted into a
wideband software defined radio via
•it could receive frequencies from 500 kHz up to 1.75 GHz.
•Most software for the RTL-SDR is also community developed, and provided free of
charge.
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4. WHAT IS RTL-SDR
• It's worth noting that this sort of scanner capability would have cost hundreds or even
thousands of dollars just a few years ago.
•The RTL-SDR is also sometimes referred to as RTL2832U, DVB-T SDR, DVB-T dongle,
RTL dongle, or the "cheap software defined radio".
•There are now many other software defined radios better than the RTL-SDR:
Airspy ($199) RX only
SDRPlay ($149) RX only
HackRF ($300USD) RX And TX
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5. RTL-SDR FREQUENCY RANGE
Tuner Frequency range
Elonics E4000 52 – 2200 MHz with a gap from 1100 MHz to
1250 MHz (varies)
Rafael Micro R820T/2 24 – 1766 MHz
Fitipower FC0013 22 – 1100 MHz
Fitipower FC0012 22 – 948.6 MHz
FCI FC2580 146 – 308 MHz and 438 – 924 MHz (gap in
between)
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6. RTL-SDR OTHER PARAMETERS
What is the RTL-SDRs sample rate?
The maximum sample rate is 3.2 MS/s.
What is the RTL-SDR's ADC resolution?
The native resolution is 8 bits.
Effective Number of Bits (ENOB) is estimated at ~7.
What is the RTL-SDR input impedance?
approximately 75 Ohms
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9. THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE RTL-SDR USB
DEVICE.
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10. MATLAB AND SIMULINK PACKAGE FOR RTL-SDR
•MathWorks released a hardware support package for the RTL-SDR in early 2014
•enables both MATLAB and Simulink to interface
• With this support package, baseband samples output from the RTL-SDR device are
supplied into the software environment
•I/Q data can be locally recorded to data disk files for later processing, or if
processing power allows on the desktop computer, live demodulation and decoding
can be performed.
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11. RTL-SDR BLOCK IN SIMULINK AND THE CONFIGURING PARAMETERS
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12. USING THE RTL-SDR AND A REAL-TIME SIMULINK SPECTRUM ANALAYSER AND 2D WATERFALL
PLOT TO VIEW PART OF A 10 MHZ 4G LTE SIGNAL SPECTRUM IN THE 800 MHZ BAND
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13. DEMO TIME
•Spectral Analysis with RTL-SDR Radio in Simulink.
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14. ASK TRANSMITTER ANALYSIS WITH RTL-SDR RADIO
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15. CONCLUSIONS
•Why RTL-SDR brought SDR to the desktops of many communications engineers?
• Very low cost
• Supports wideband of spectrum (25 MHz to 1.75 GHz)
• Supported software's such as: SDR-Sharp, GNU-RADIO, MATLAB, …
• There is no longer a requirement for expensive spectrum analyzer hardware, and no requirement for
signal generators.
• No transmission, just listening…(No law breaking :))
• With the current drivers for MATLAB and Simulink, we can host multiple RTL-SDRs
•The full set of SDR open-course educational materials referred to in this article are
available to download (http://www.desktopSDR.com) as a 670 page workbook with
more than 120 hands-on examples.
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16. REFERENCES:
A low-cost desktop software defined radio design environment using MATLAB, simulink, and the RTL-SDR
Robert W. Stewart; Louise Crockett; Dale Atkinson; Kenneth Barlee; David Crawford; Iain
Chalmers; Mike Mclernon; Ethem Sozer
IEEE Communications Magazine
Year: 2015, Volume: 53, Issue: 9
•http://rlt-sdr.com/
•http://mathworks.com/
•http://www.desktopSDR.com/
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