doc/manuals/chapters/trx-devices.adoc

[[osmotrx_device_support]]
== OsmoTRX hardware device support

OsmoTRX consists of a _common_ part that applies to all TRX devices as well as
_hardware-specific_ parts for each TRX device. The hardware-specific parts are
usually provided by vendor-specific or device-specific libraries that are then
handled by some OsmoTRX glue code presenting a unified interface towards the
rest of the code by means of a _RadioDevice_ class.

The common part includes the core TRX architecture as well as code for
implementing the external interfaces such as the TRX Manager UDP socket,
control, and VTY interfaces.

The hardware-specific parts include support for driving one particular
implementation of a radio modem.  Such a physical layer
implementation can come in many forms.  Sometimes it runs on a general
purpose CPU, sometimes on a dedicated ARM core, a dedicated DSP, a
combination of DSP and FPGA.

Joining the common part with each of the available backends results in a
different binary with different suffix for each backend. For instance, when
OsmoTRX is built with UHD backend, an _osmo-trx-uhd_ binary is generated; when
OsmoTRX is built with LimeSuite backend, an _osmo-trx-lms_ binary is generated.
Build of different backend can be enabled and disabled by means of configure
flags, which can be found in each subsection relative to each backend below.

[[dev_ettus_usrp1]]
=== Ettus USRP1

The binary _osmo-trx-usrp1_ is used to drive this device, see <<backend_usrp1>>.

include::./device-usrp-inband-signaling-usb.adoc[]

[[dev_ettus_b200]]
=== Ettus B200

The binary _osmo-trx-uhd_ is used to drive this device, see <<backend_uhd>>.

Comes only with 1 RF channel. It can still be used in a multi-TRX setup by using
the <<multiarfcn_mode>> feature. By using this feature, one can drive up to 3
TRX (with the restrictions explained there).

[[dev_ettus_b200]]
=== Ettus B210

The binary _osmo-trx-uhd_ is used to drive this device, see <<backend_uhd>>.

Comes with 2 RF channels, which can be used to set up a multi-TRX BTS. However,
due to a shared local oscillator for both RF channels, ARFCN separation can be
up about 25 MHz.

This device also supports the <<multiarfcn_mode>> feature. By using this
feature, one can drive up to 3 TRX (with the restrictions explained there).
Please note  that the above configurations cannot be combined, which means
maximum number of TRX one can achieve is 2 by using separate physical RF
channels, or 3 by using multi-ARFCN method. You cannot support, for example, 6
ARFCN operation on B210 using 3 TRX on side A and another 3 TRX on side B.

[[dev_limesdr_usb]]
=== LimeSDR-USB

The binary _osmo-trx-lms_ is used to drive this device, see <<backend_lms>>.

This device comes with 2 RF channels, so it should theoretically be possible to
run a multi-TRX setup with it, but there are yet no records that this kind of
setup was tested with this device.

This device has 3 different Rx paths with different antenna connectors in the
PCB, each with a different frequency and bandwidth range. One should make sure
the physical antenna is connected to the correct connector matching the Rx path
you want to use. If one wants to be able to use the device in both 900 and 1800
MHz GSM bands and easily switch between them, then Rx Path `LNAW` should be used
,since it is the only one covering both bands, and the antenna physically plugged
accordingly. Following example shows how to then configure _osmo-trx-lms_ to use
that Rx path to read samples.

.Example: Configure osmo-trx-lms to use LNAW as Rx path and BAND1 as Tx Path
----
trx
 ...
 chan 0
  tx-path BAND1
  rx-path LNAW
----

[[dev_limesdr_mini]]
=== LimeSDR-mini

The binary _osmo-trx-lms_ is used to drive this device, see <<backend_lms>>.

As a smaller brother of the [[dev_limesdr_usb]], this device comes only with 1
RF channel. As a result, it can only hold 1 TRX as of today.