RFmx NR 2022 Q3 Readme

July 2022

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 Documentation

Finding Examples

Product Security and Critical Updates

Behavior Changes

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

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 2022 Q3 includes the following new features:

  • Support for LabVIEW 2022 Q3 (64-bit)
  • Support for demodulation of multiple shared channels that are orthogonal in time or frequency in Uplink and Downlink ModAcc measurement
  • Support for SEM measurement in band n46, n96, and n102 with full bandwidth transmission based on 3GPP Release 17 (March-2022)
  • Support for 1024-QAM modulation type in Downlink Testmodels TM2b and TM3.1b based on 3GPP Release 17 (March-2022)
  • Support for bands n101 and n102 based on 3GPP Release 17 (March-2022)

RFmx NR 21.8 includes the following new features:

  • Support for Half Radio Frame Index to indicate location of SSB with periodicity greater than 5 msec
  • Support for demodulating non-3GPP compliant short frames with Sync Mode as Frame and Trigger Type as None
  • Support for additional phase tracking modes in ModAcc measurement
  • Support for n46 and n96 bands in ACP and PVT measurements and IBE result in ModAcc measurement
  • Support for configurable Cell ID in Downlink Test Models
  • Support for Release 17 specifications of 3GPP NR based on (Dec-2021)

RFmx NR 21.3 includes the following new features:

  • Support for all trigger types and synchronization modes in ModAcc measurement for downlink mixed numerology SSB/SCH configurations
  • Support for LabVIEW 2021 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Support for List Mode feature on PXIe-5840/5841/5830/5831/5832
  • Support for TXP measurement
  • Support for SSB Periodicity of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 msec
  • Support for PVT measurement in downlink
  • Support for Custom configuration for ACP measurement
  • Support for Intra-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation in FR1 bands for SEM measurement
  • Support for reference symbols input for EVM computation in the ModAcc measurement
  • Support for Auto Level for ModAcc measurement
  • Support for Release 17 specifications of 3GPP NR based on (June 2021):
    • Addition of 35 MHz and 45 MHz BW support
    • Addition of new Bands n13, n24, n67, n85, n97, n98
  • Support for EVM noise compensation in FR1 frequencies for ModAcc measurement with 5840, 5841, and 5831
  • Support for all FFT window types and user-defined overlap (%) for Sequential FFT measurement method in ACP measurement

Supported Hardware

Visit NI Hardware and Operating System Compatibility to view driver, desktop operating system, and real-time operating system support for individual hardware devices.

To view information for your device:

  • Select your hardware model in the dropdown list on the page to view compatibility information for your device.
  • Type your hardware model number in the dropdown list on the web page to filter the list of available devices.

Note: Some compatibility information may only be available in the archive attached to the NI Hardware and Operating System Compatibility page. For historic driver and OS support information, refer to the readme for the relevant driver version.

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
  • Any supported OS, 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 2022 Q3 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016

Note    RFmx NR no longer supports Windows Vista/XP/7/8.1, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, or any 32-bit Windows operating system. RFmx NR 2022 Q3 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use RFmx NR 2022 Q3 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing RFmx NR 2022 Q3, 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 detailed information about NI operating system support, visit http://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.

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. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.

Application Software Versions Supported by RFmx NR (64-bit only)
LabVIEW 2019 SP1 f3 patch, 2020 SP1, 2021 SP1 f1 patch, 2022 Q3

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

Download the RFmx NR installer from ni.com/downloads. NI software includes NI Package Manager to handle the installation. 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\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) <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 » National Instruments » InstrumentStudio to launch the InstrumentStudio.

Accessing the API

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

Accessing the Documentation

Documentation for RFmx NR is located at Start » National Instruments » RFmx NR Documentation.

Finding Examples

You can access all the installed RFmx NR examples at Start » National Instruments » 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 NI products. For information about critical updates from NI, refer to Available Critical and Security Updates for NI Software.

Behavior Changes

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 2022 Q3 from RFmx NR 21.8:

  • RFmx Soft Front Panel has been replaced by InstrumentStudio.

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 21.8 from RFmx NR 21.5:

  • RFmx NR drops support for 32-bit user mode.
  • Deprecated PDSCH present in SSB Resource Block.
  • Deprecated Subblock Freq Definition property. Use Subblock Freq (Hz) property for configuring subblock frequency offset from the center frequency.

The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 21.3 from RFmx NR 20.7/20.7.1:

  • Updated downlink subblock integration bandwidth for ACP, CHP, and SEM measurements as per 38.104 CR0262.
  • Increased acquisition length for ModAcc measurement in the case of DFT-s-OFDM with SCS 60 kHz, and above with trigger types other than digital and sync mode other than Frame.

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

For more information about NI support for Windows 10, refer to NI Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 10.


Legal Information

Copyright

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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

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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.