RFmx NR 20.0 Readme

June 2020

This file contains important information about the RFmx NR, including system requirements, and installation instructions.

Overview

New Features

Supported Hardware

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

Application Software Support

Installation Instructions

Installed Software

File Locations

Executable

Accessing the API

Accessing the Help

Finding Examples

Product Security and Critical Updates

Behavior Changes

Known Issues

Bug Fixes

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

RFmx NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021

Legal Information


Overview

The RFmx NR personality is a highly optimized API for performing physical layer measurements on 5G New Radio (NR) signals. RFmx NR is completely interoperable with all RFmx APIs. It provides simple access to the most advanced optimization techniques such as multimeasurement parallelism and multi-DUT measurements. The result is extremely fast and high-quality measurements with minimal software development efforts.

New Features

RFmx NR 20.0 includes the following new features:

  • Support for LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Support for Start trigger, Advance trigger, and Events in RFInstr
  • Support to configure RFInstr properties in the context of a signal configuration
  • Support for PXIe-5841 with PXIe-5655
  • Support for updates from 3GPP TS 38.104 NR Release 16 specification March 2020
  • Support for PUSCH and PDSCH DMRS for Release 16 as per 3GPP TS 38.211 specification v16.1.0
  • Support for Downlink Test Model 2a and 3.1a for Frequency Range 2
  • Support for 1024 QAM modulation in PDSCH and PUSCH
  • Support for user defined Downlink Multi-user configuration
  • Support for Downlink SS/PBCH EVM in ModAcc measurement for Case A-E
  • Speed improvements in ModAcc measurement
  • Support for speed optimization of the ModAcc measurement by bypassing certain operations
  • ModAcc robustness improvements for low RB allocations in PDSCH/PUSCH
  • Support for FFT Overlap in the Sequential FFT method of the ACP measurement
  • Support for Sequential FFT in ACP for measurement bandwidth greater than device instantaneous bandwidth in PXIe-5830/5831/5840/5841
  • Support for measurement bandwidth equal to channel bandwidth in CHP measurement
  • Support for Bandwidth Optimization Enabled mode in composite measurements

RFmx NR 19.1 includes the following new features:

  • Support for PXIe-5830/5831/5841
  • Support for updates from 3GPP NR Release 15 specification v15.6.0 (June 2019)
  • Support for non-contiguous carrier aggregation
  • Support for power vs time (PVT) measurement for Uplink
  • Support for additional offset channel spacing for carrier aggregation in the ACP measurement
  • Support for auto increment cell id for carrier aggregation
  • Support for PDSCH EVM measurement in the presence of PDCCH
  • Enhanced robustness of ModAcc measurement to analyze filtered waveforms, sequence and group hopping, and impaired signals
  • Added capability to include/exclude DMRS and PTRS EVM in Composite EVM result

RFmx NR 19.0 includes the following new features:

  • Support for LabVIEW 2019 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Support for De-embedding S-Parameter External Attenuation Tables
  • Addition of Reference Level Headroom property
  • Addition of downlink test models as defined in 3GPP TS 38.141-1 and 3GPP TS 38.141-2 (v15.0.0, January 2019 Change requests R4-1905121, R4-1905122 endorsed in April 2019, to be updated in v15.2.0 when it releases in June 2019)
  • Addition of uplink contiguous carrier aggregation in ACP measurement
  • Addition of EUTRA-NR dual connectivity (ENDC) in ModAcc, ACP, and SEM measurements
  • Support for configurable SSB active blocks
  • Support for uplink spectral flatness measurement for PI/2 BPSK with power boost
  • Support for auto phase compensation based on carrier frequency
  • Support multiple PUSCH configurations
  • Shared Channel symbol power is reported per carrier
  • Removed support for Cell ID control in DL Test Model Examples
  • Improvements in auto-detection of RB allocation
  • Support for PXIe-5830 and PXIe-5831

Supported Hardware

The following hardware products are supported in all operating systems listed in the Supported Operating Systems section.

Vector Signal Analyzers

  • PXIe-5668
  • PXIe-5668 with PXIe-5698

Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Analyzers Help.

Vector Signal Transceivers

  • PXIe-5646
  • PXIe-5840
  • PXIe-5820
  • PXIe-5830
  • PXIe-5831
  • PXIe-5841
  • PXIe-5841 with PXIe-5655

Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help.

System Requirements

RFmx NR has the following requirements:

  • Processor—1 GHz 64-bit (x64) processor
  • 4 GB RAM *
  • A screen resolution of 1,024 x 768
  • Windows 10/8.1/7, with all available critical updates and service packs

* Depending on the amount of data acquired and/or processed, a larger amount of memory may be required.

Supported Operating Systems

RFmx NR 20.0 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:

  • Windows 10/8.1 1 /7 SP1 2
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 1
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 2

1 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.

2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 and KB3125574 for more information about how to install these updates.

Note   In 2019, RFmx NR dropped support for all 32-bit Windows operating systems. RFmx NR will not install or run on an unsupported OS. Refer to RFmx NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021 for information about future OS support.

Note   In 2016, RFmx NR dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use RFmx NR 20.0 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing RFmx NR 20.0, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio on an unsupported OS.

For more information about the changes to our OS support for 2016, visit ni.com/r/OSSupport2016.

Application Software Support

RFmx NR supports the following application software versions, including service packs. You should install application software, such as LabVIEW or Microsoft Visual Studio®, before installing RFmx NR. To add support for application software installed after installing RFmx NR modify your RFmx NR installation or launch the RFmx NR installer again. If you are not using NI application software, refer to  Microsoft Visual Studio Support.

Application Software Versions Supported by RFmx NR
LabVIEW 2017, 2018 SP1 f4 patch, 2019 SP1 f3 patch, 2020

Required Software

  • NI-RFSA 14.1 or later
  • NI-RFSA 17.1 or later (for initializing debug session when "using breakpoints in C/C++/.NET application" is selected)

Microsoft Visual Studio Support

If you are using the RFmx NR .NET Class Library, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The RFmx NR .NET Class Library can be used with Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET in any Visual Studio version that can target .NET Framework 4.0 or .NET Framework 4.5.

Installation Instructions

NI installs RFmx NR using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, RFmx NR installs NI Package Manager to handle the installation of your NI software. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.

Notes

  • If Windows Update is enabled, the installation process might hang if Windows Update interferes with the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Run-Time. Visit ni.com/r/exjq43 for more information and steps to resolve this issue.
  • Use the serial number that is included with your software to activate RFmx NR. For more information on RFmx NR activation, refer to National Instruments Software Activation .

Installed Software

  • <MSTUDIOVS2010DIR> is an alias for the following National Instruments file folder location:
    • Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\MeasurementStudioVS2010
  • <NIDir> is an alias for the following National Instruments file folder location:
    •  Program Files (x86)\National Instruments 
  • <SYSDIR> is an alias for the following file folder location:
    • Windows\SysWOW64 for 32-bit programs and windows\system32 for 64-bit programs

File Locations

Item Installed Location
Version Compatibility Checker <NIDir>\RFmx\niRFmxCompatibility_Checker.exe
Debug Configuration Utility <NIDir>\RFmx\niRFmxDebugConfigurationUtility.exe
DLLs <SYSDIR>
Header files

<NIDir>\Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\include

Import Library files (64-bit)
  • 32-bit: <NIDir>\Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\lib32\msvc
  • 64-bit: <NIDir>\Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\lib64\msvc
.NET Class Libraries
Assemblies <MSTUDIOVS2010DIR>\DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.RFmx.NRMX.Fx40.dll
<MSTUDIOVS2010DIR>\DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.RFmx.InstrMX.Fx40.dll
<MSTUDIOVS2010DIR>\DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.Common.dll

Executable

Select Start » All Programs » National Instruments » RFmx NR » RFmx Soft Front Panel to launch the RFmx Soft Front Panel (64-bit).

Accessing the API

RFmx NR palette VIs are available from the Functions » Measurement I/O » NI-RFmx » NR palette.

Accessing the Help

Documentation for RFmx NR is located at Start » All Programs » National Instruments » RFmx NR » RFmx NR Documentation. The documentation set is composed of the following documents.

Document Format Description
RFmx NR Help HTML/Windows Help Contains primary help content for RFmx NR. This help file is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
  • An introduction to RFmx NR
  • How to get started with application development
  • A complete reference for all RFmx NR programming functions and VIs
RFmx NR 20.0 Readme HTML (this document) Contains information about supported hardware and operating systems, new features, fixed issues, and legal notices.

Finding Examples

You can access all the installed RFmx NR examples at Start » All Programs » National Instruments » RFmx NR » RFmx NR Examples.

For the most recent revisions of documentation and for newly released documentation, visit ni.com/manuals.

Product Security and Critical Updates

Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about National Instruments products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from National Instruments.

Behavior Changes

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 20.0 from RFmx NR 19.1.

  • Updated measurement bandwidth for Uplink FR2 contiguous CA in ACP and CHP
  • Frequency segment definition of Operating Band Unwanted Emission in SEM measurement aligned with section 9.7.4.3.3 of 3GPP TS 38.104 specification v15.9.0/v16.3.0
  • NR SS/PBCH block parameters CRB Offset and Subcarrier Offset in ModAcc measurement are aligned to be 3GPP specification compliant

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 19.1 from RFmx NR 19.0.

  • Change in default value of Transmit LO Architecture property to LO per Subblock. In this mode:
    • IQ Origin offset result for multicarrier configurations is reported in Subblock IQ Origin Offset Mean result property
    • Quadrature error and IQ Gain Imbalance results are not supported for multicarrier configurations
  • Updated nominal spacing definition for carrier aggregation cases as per Rel 15 Specification June 2019 v 15.6.0. For waveforms compliant to previous Rel 15 releases, use user-defined spacing definition.
  • Composite EVM result does not include the EVM of DMRS and PTRS. You must set ModAcc Composite Results Include DMRS and ModAcc Composite Results Include PTRS properties to True to include the respective EVMs in the Composite EVM result
  • Dropped support for ModAcc EVM Exclusion Period property for Downlink measurement as per the 3GPP NR specification Rel 15 June 2019
  • Dropped support for Cleaner Spectrum property on PXIe-5830 and 5831
  • Obsoleted RFmxNR Analyze (IQ) and RFmxNR Analyze (Spectrum) APIs. Use RFmxNR Analyze (IQ, 1 Wfm) and RFmxNR Analyze (Spectrum, 1 Wfm) APIs instead
  • When you set the Frequency Range property to Range 2 , the new enums, FR2 Category A , FR2 Category B , added to the gNodeB Category property are the only valid enums.

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 19.0 from RFmx NR 3.0.

  • Dropped support for LabVIEW 2015
  • Deprecated the Recommended I/Q Measurement Bandwidth property in RFInstr
  • To load and run a Downlink configuration file saved from RFmx 3.0, the user has to explicitly set value of Downlink Channel Configuration Mode property to User Defined

Known Issues

You can access the RFmx NR known issues list online at RFmx NR 20.0 Known Issues.

Bug Fixes

You can access the RFmx NR bug fix list online at RFmx NR 20.0 Bug Fixes.

Automating the Installation of NI Products

You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.

If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.6.2, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.

For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.

RFmx NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021

RFmx NR will drop support for Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.


Legal Information

Copyright

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Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.

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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices

You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:

  • Notices are located in the <National Instruments>\_Legal Information and <National Instruments> directories.
  • EULAs are located in the <National Instruments>\Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
  • Review <National Instruments>\_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.

U.S. Government Restricted Rights

If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.

IVI Foundation Copyright Notice

Content from the IVI specifications reproduced with permission from the IVI Foundation.

The IVI Foundation and its member companies make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The IVI Foundation and its member companies shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Trademarks

Refer to the NI Trademarks and Logo Guidelines at ni.com/trademarks for information on NI trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Patents

For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.

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