GNURadio as a digital signal processing environment: Application to acoustic wireless sensor measurement and time & frequency analysis of periodic signals

The flexibility, reconfigurability and stability of software defined radio yield an attractive alternative to the analog strategy of probing acoustic transducers acting as passive sensors probed through a wireless link or to phase noise characterization of oscillators. However, developing processing blocks is a time consuming activity, yet metrology applications require a dedicated understanding of each processing step. We consider GNURadio as a means of exploiting opensource software as an optimum tradeoff between software re-usability yet compatible with an audit for assessing performance. This signal processing environment is demonstrated on two practical examples, FMCW probing of acoustic delay lines acting as sensors, and quartz tuning fork characterization. Both examples are considered as introductory setups for training and teaching yet a suitable environment for research activities.