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RTL-SDR Presentation
DATASET SEPTEMBER 2015

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1 AUTHOR:
Alexander Sergienko
Petersburg State Electrotechnical University
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Retrieved on: 21 March 2016

Software-Defined Radio
in MATLAB/Simulink
with RTL-SDR Hardware
Alexander Sergienko
Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI
Department of Theoretical Fundamentals of Radio Engineering

ICCTPEA-2014, St. Petersburg,

June 30 July 4, 2014

Software-Defined Radio Concept

Ultimate dream
Analog-to-Digital
Converter

Software

Antenna
..., 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, ...

Current reality
Analog-to-Digital
Converter
Antenna

Analog Processing
(Filtering, Frequency
Conversion, etc.)

Software

Professional SDR Hardware

Good performance

High price (~ $ 3,000)

Legal limitations on the

use of radio transmitters

Form factor not
convenient for some
applications

Example: NI USRP

Realtek RTL2832U Demodulator

Released by Realtek in 2010

Main function: demodulation of digital

television signals (DVB-T standard)

SDR mode: officially intended for reception
of FM broadcasting and DAB (demodulation
performed in software by device drivers)

Since 2012, widely used by radio amateurs
as a cheap SDR-platform RTL-SDR

Retail price: from $7

Exterior of RTL-SDR devices

RTL-SDR: basic parameters

ADC resolution: 8 bits

Sampling rate: up to 3,2 MHz

Frequency range is defined by tuner chip:

Widest range: Elonics E4000

52B1100 and 1200B2200 MHz

Mostly used now: Rafael Micro R820T

24B1766 MHz

Drivers exist for all major operating systems:

Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android

MATLAB/Simulink Support

Introduced by MathWorks in January 2014

Support package available for download from

the MathWorks site

System requirements:

MATLAB R2013b or later

Simulink support:

Block RTL-SDR Receiver

MATLAB support:

System object comm.SDRRTLReceiver

Support by Simulink
USB port number
Carrier frequency
Gain
Sampling rate
Frequency correction
Turn on Lost samples
output port
Turn on Latency output port
Output data type
Number of samples per frame

Support by MATLAB
>> h = comm.SDRRTLReceiver

>> S = info(h)

h =

S =

System: comm.SDRRTLReceiver
Properties:
RadioAddress:
CenterFrequency:
EnableTunerAGC:
SampleRate:
OutputDataType:
SamplesPerFrame:
FrequencyCorrection:

'0'
102500000
true
250000
'int16'
1024
0

The following values show radio settings, not

the property
values of RTL-SDR receiver System object. For
more information,
type 'help comm.SDRRTLReceiver'.
RadioName:
RadioAddress:
TunerName:
Manufacturer:
Product:
GainValues:
RTLCrystalFrequency:
TunerCrystalFrequency:
SamplingMode:
OffsetTuning:
CenterFrequency:
SampleRate:
FrequencyCorrection:

'Terratec T Stick PLUS'

'0'
'E4000'
'Realtek'
'RTL2838UHIDIR'
[1x14 double]
28800000
28800000
'Quadrature'
'Disabled'
102500000
250000
0

MATLAB/Simulink Examples

List of examples:

Spectral Analysis

Frequency Offset Calibration

FM Monophonic Receiver

FM Stereo Receiver

FRS/GMRS Receiver

Every example is implemented in two forms:

Simulink model

MATLAB script

FM Broadcasting Signals
Spectrogram, center frequency 91,0 MHz

GSM Signals
Signal Fading

25

Signal Magnitude

20

15

10

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Time, seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

DVB-T2 Signals
1

0.9

0.9

0.8

0.8

0.7

0.7

Normalized
CF

CF

Normalized

Correlation function

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3

0.5
0.4
0.3

0.2

X: 2.188
Y: 0.1234

0.2
X: 3.584
Y: 0.05783

0.1
0
-1

0.6

-0.5

0.5

1.5
t,

2.5

3.5

0.1
4

0
-20

-15

-10

t, ms

OFDM Symbol
Duration
(3,584 ms)

X: 6.25
Y: 0.122

Multipath Nature
of Impulse
Response

-5

0
,

t, s

10

15

20

Possible Signals to Process

Identification beacons on vessels (AIS) and

planes (ADS-B)

430 MHz devices (wireless sensors, car
remote controls, etc.)

Weather information from satellites

GNSS (GPS, GLONASS) (External amplifier
required)

Radio astronomy signals (External amplifier
required)

Educational Use:
UC Berkeley, DSP Course

Conclusion

Combination of RTL-SDR USB hardware and

MATLAB/Simulink software can serve as a

cheap SDR platform for educational
purposes:
Lecture demonstrations

Laboratory assignments

Course projects

Promotion of technical creativity,
popularization of wireless engineering, etc.