Neel Pandeya

Neel Pandeya is a Principal SDR Engineer and Group Manager at National Instruments in Austin, Texas, USA. His background and interests are in open-source software development, kernel and embedded software development, wireless communications, 4G/LTE and 5G/NR networks, DSP and signal processing, FPGA programming, and software-defined radio (SDR). He has previous technical management experience and university teaching experience. He is a co-founder and co-organizer of the New England Workshop for SDR (NEWSDR), and is also a co-organizer of the GNU Radio Conference (GRCon) and the 5G Workshop at IEEE MILCOM. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) from Northeastern University (NEU), and is a member of IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu (HKN). He has an Amateur Radio License, and is aspiring to obtain a private pilot license.

Introduction to SDR with the USRP Radio

This workshop provides an introduction to the USRP hardware and the open-source software toolchain with UHD and GNU Radio. We will discuss the hardware architecture of the USRP SDR radios, how to get started using the USRP out-of-the-box, using the UHD device driver, programming the USRP from C++ and Python, using GNU Radio with the USRP, creating and running flowgraphs from both GRC and Python, managing FPGA images, viewing packetized I/Q data with Wireshark, high-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking and I/Q data streaming, host system performance tuning, and debugging problems with network configuration, flow-control errors, and RF issues. Several demos and examples will be shown, such as performing real-time spectrum monitoring, recording and transmitting waveforms from files, and implementing an FM transmitter and receiver. Several additional complementary open-source tools will also be discussed, such as GQRX, Fosphor, Inspectrum, and several GNU Radio Out-of-Tree (OOT) modules. The workshop will also include several practical hands-on exercises with physical USRP hardware for attendees (attendees must bring their own laptop computers and follow a specific set-up and configuration, but USRP radios will be provided). Attendees should gain a basic foundation and practical understanding of how to configure, program, and operate the USRP to prototype and implement various wireless systems.