rtl-sdr: multi-dongles based flexible spectrum scanner

Multi-dongles scanner with configurable parameters: start-end frequency, RBW, num of dongles, etc.
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Updated 10 Feb 2014

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Multiple rtl-sdr(rtl_tcp) dongles based Matlab frequency scanner. (putaoshu@gmail.com; putaoshu@msn.com)

1. multi_rtl_sdr_split_scanner.m
Have multiple dongles run concurrently to speedup scanning wide band by scanning different sub-band with different dongle.
2. multi_rtl_sdr_diversity_scanner.m
All dongles scan the same band, and then results from different dongles are combined incoherently.

Sub Scripts of project: https://github.com/JiaoXianjun/multi-rtl-sdr-calibration

------------Usage------------
1. Assume that you have installed rtl-sdr
(http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr) and have those native utilities run correctly already.

For example, you have multiple dongles, please run multiple rtl_tcp in multiple shell respectively as:
rtl_tcp -p 1234 -d 0
rtl_tcp -p 1235 -d 1
rtl_tcp -p 1236 -d 2
...

2. Then run script multi_rtl_sdr_split_scanner.m or multi_rtl_sdr_diversity_scanner.m in MATLAB.

ATTENTION! In some computer, each time before you run script, maybe you need to terminate multiple rtl_tcp and re-launch them again.
ATTENTION! Please reduce number of inspected points by reducing frequency range or increasing step size, if your computer hasn't enough memory installed. Because all signlas are stored firstly before processing.

Change following parameters in the script as you need:

num_dongle = 1;
start_freq = 935e6;
end_freq = 960e6;
freq_step = 0.05e6;
observe_time = 0.1;
gain = 0;
sample_rate = 2.048e6;
...

------------Algorithm------------
Use high sampling rate for each frequency point. Then Auto generated narrow FIR is used to suppress noise and extract signal.
At last, power of signal at each frequency is estimated and spectrum of all frequencies is generated.

Cite As

Xianjun Jiao (2024). rtl-sdr: multi-dongles based flexible spectrum scanner (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/45024-rtl-sdr-multi-dongles-based-flexible-spectrum-scanner), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2012b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
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Version Published Release Notes
1.7.0.0

Add file header info.

1.6.0.0

change very slightly: make object setting and openning of two dongles more "parallel"

1.5.0.0

Change frequency setting --> fread of multi-dongles from serial to parallel.

1.4.0.0

Add another attention note on potential large memory consumption. ATTENTION! Please reduce number of inspected points by reducing frequency range or increasing step size, if your computer hasn't enough memory installed. Because all signlas are stored

1.3.0.0

Very very little typo correction.
Dongle index example is changed from 0,1,3... to 0,1,2...

1.2.0.0

1. README.txt is added.

2. Add multi_rtl_sdr_split_scanner.m. It uses different dongles concurrently to scan different sub-bands. Significiant scanning speedup is achieved.

1.1.0.0

Make multi_rtl_sdr_diversity_scanner.m faster and add time cost statistics in it.

1.0.0.0