Capturing, recording, and analyzing LTE signals using USRPs and LabVIEW

Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems are currently playing a major role in catering the ever increasing traffic demand. Better performance and better throughput compared to other mobile communication technologies are main objectives of LTE deployments. To provide a better quality of experience, LTE signals from real base stations should be captured and analyzed, for possibly making adjustments to network operation parameters, or for deploying new base stations. In this paper, real LTE signals from the base stations are recorded using universal software radio peripheral (USRP) devices and NI LabVIEW software. Then, these recorded LTE signals are processed and analyzed in MATLAB to identify information such as primary cell identifier (PCI) and master information block (MIB). LabVIEW and MATLAB graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are provided to make the system more user friendly.