Exploring frequency tuning policies for USRP-N210 SDR platform and GNU radio

Nowadays, most of communication systems are well suited for the evolving technology of Software-Defined Radios (SDR). Despite the wide variety of SDR applications, one trait is common among them which is the frequency hopping. Systems utilizing frequency hopping with high hopping rates have strong limitations on the frequency tuning time. In this paper, we assess the influences of several tuning options, offered by the GNU Radio Universal Hardware Driver (UHD), with respect to tuning time. Our target SDR platform is the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP)-N210, the highest performing class among the USRP family, paired with the RFX2400 daughterboard. Our aim is to figure out the tuning option that results in minimum tuning time allowing the realization of faster hopping rates.