Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] building carrier sense in the FPGA and UHD

[George Nychis]

Let me put it this way... I'm going to build it because I need it ;)  But what I'm asking/hoping for is for it to be useful beyond just me and actually have a lifespan beyond my immediate use of it.  So, I'd like to get some feedback on how others might like to see it tied in to UHD, or the type of flexibility the implementation should have.  For example, the programmability of the threshold, the type of back off, the control of the back off, etc.

You don't get these types of people on the list very often because they simply look at GNU Radio and USRPs architecture and go: well, it doesn't support that... moving right along to another platform (e.g., WARP, Sora, etc.).  But speaking from my area (wireless networking, not so much wireless communications), it is this kind of functionality that a lot of people want/need to build a network on top of the OFDM code, for example.  

You can say that energy sensing isn't general enough or any implementation of it wouldn't be general enough, but IMO staying away from it more significantly limits possible applications of the platform rather than expanding it.  I think this type of functionality can further support a new set of applications and networks.  I don't feel as though it threatens the flexibility of GNU Radio because it's not fundamentally changing the architecture. It's exploiting the tight-control that UHD was put in place to try and enable. It's functionality that sleeps in the FPGA unless you need it to build your application.

Like I said, I can build it as a separate FPGA firmware for those who want to use the functionality (though I fear it gets deprecated quite quickly in that way)... but it would be good to hear what kind of functionality and flexibility people would like to see in a carrier sense implementation, how it could be controlled, etc.  Otherwise, I will go off and "do my thang" and you simply get what comes out of it ;)