USRP X410 100G lane support

Hi, I currently have two x410s and each can connect to my host via a QSFP Direct Attach Cable.

Unfortunately, through radioSetupWizard I only see an option to connect via a 10G (SFP) port, which by extension leads me to conclude that 100G images are still not supported; in line with previous answers to community threads as well.

Given that I don't have some form of 10G port I can dedicate, and that when I flash any x4 FPGA image as expected the x410s and Matlab can't really communicate through QSFP, I was thinking if it would be possible to basically communicate via MEX and somehow couple to the outputs of relevant functions such as transmit().

Feel free to enlighten me if there is an alternative or correct my logic.

[Walter Roberson]

I'm not clear on what you are saying. Are you saying that you have a 100G (SFP) port available, but not a 10G (SFP) port? SFP ports are almost always backwards compatible, so a 10G dongle would likely fit into a 100G rated port.

[Athanasios Iossifides]

Yes perhaps I didn't articulate it clearly enough.

What I am saying is that in terms of physical interfaces I have two x410s, each with its own QSFP port, which is physically different from an SFP port (it is dimensioanally bigger), and a host NIC with two 100G QSFP ports as well. So the idea is to directly attach one host NIC QSFP port to an x410 QSFP port. To do that, I need a correct FPGA image on the x410.

The problem begins when Matlab calls for a configured radio object, which I have to make through the radioSetupWizard. In that wizard, when I select x410 from the dropdown, it calls for a 10G connection, and specifically asks to use a QSFP to SFP breakout cable. So, that basically renders the direct attach + 100G idea non viable, as Matlab also wants to flash it with a 4x10G default FPGA image (X4_200) rather than a 1x100G such as the UC_200. Unless I am gravely mistaken, even assuming I purchase such breakout cables and put two dongles to my host NIC, I can only leverage up to one 10G lane to feed one x410 in this case, severely limiting its capabilities, no?

Therefore, I was wondering if instead I could keep the devices flashed with an 1x100G image, and communicate/work with Matlab via MEX, and in that case, how to couple functions that require in the preconfigured radio object to pass arguments to/from the x410 directly. For instance, how to "emulate" bbrx = basebandReceiver(radio) since I can't successfully make a radio object.

That's pretty much the issue. So any suggestions are welcome.

Answer 1

[Martin Enderwitz]

Hello Athanasios,

You are correct - at present, Wireless Testbench supports the USRP X410 through a 10G interface and the X4 FPGA image only. Your interest in using 100G interfaces and associated FPGA images has been noted for future consideration.

Regards,

Martin

[Athanasios Iossifides]

Great, thank you for your time in clarifying that indeed currently only 10G images are supported.

Therefore, until in a future release there is possibly support for the 100G interfaces, and assuming no hardware changes are currently possible in my setup, would you agree that the only way to do that is through custom-coding the necessary communications via MEX? Do you have some pointers as to how best convert the need for a radio object to something likely to work with this approach?