Spectrum Monitoring
Real time spectrum monitoring for seamless data capture of up to 400 Gbps
Interface systems, custom designs, and full integration support available
With an operating frequency from DC to 18 GHz and up to 16 independent channels,
with 1GHz instantaneous bandwidth each,
Cyan is the most powerful solution on the market.
A high fidelity, state-of-the-art, solution that is ready for use, this solution enables monitoring across a wide spectrum. The use of multiple independent channels allows for spectrum sweeping while concurrently tuning in to signals of interest. The Cyan SDR is a rack mount systems that offer seamless data capture in real time with the ability to stream 160 Gbps from the radio to external equipment.
The Cyan platform has remote capabilities and can be accessed through an Ethernet connection to your network, which is ideal for situations and areas where personnel presence is not possible.
The flexibility and update mechanisms available in software defined radio make this an investment that can stand the test of time and be upgraded easily and efficiently with new software updates.
Cyan features an on-board Intel Stratix 10 SoC FPGA, high speed digital logic, and precise time keeping to enable high RF and digital bandwidths. The radio performance can also be optimized to meet SNR, noise figure, phase noise, IIP3/OIP3, and more. With up to 16 GHz of instantaneous RF bandwidth, Cyan enables a high POI and can stream 4 x 40 Gbps of data with 100% packet transfer for lossless operation.
Spectrum Monitoring Block Diagram
Cyan, Chestnut & Crimson TNG can be configured for any system through:
- Number of RF & DSP channels
- FPGA resources and digital logic
- RF performance figures
- Form factor
Documentation
Applications
- Spectrum Recording & Monitoring
- Signal Intercept
- Monitoring restricted areas (prisons, military facilities, government buildings, airports)
- Enforcing Spectrum Policy
- Interference Monitoring
Features
- Very high RF & digital bandwidth
- Custom number of channels for operations in various parts of the spectrum
- COTS solutions
- Digital backhaul through 4 x 40 Gbps qSFP+ ports
- Data storage options for any application
- User adjustable RF parameters
Crimson TNG
- 4 Rx and 4 Tx RF channels
- Over 1200 MHz RF bandwidth in total
- Operating frequency DC to 6 GHz
- Dual 10 Gbps SFP+ ports
- Intel Arria V ST FPGA SoC
- Compact form factor (1U rackmount)
- Storage & Playback Solution
configured to work with Chestnut
Chestnut
- 4 Rx and 4 Tx channels
- 500 MHz RF bandwidth per channel
- Operating frequency DC to 9 GHz
- Dual 100 Gbps qSFP+ ports
- Intel Arria 10 FPGA SoC
- Compact form factor (2U rackmount)
- Storage & Playback Solution
configured to work with Chestnut
Cyan
- Up to 16 RF channels
- Over 1 GHz RF bandwidth per channel
- Operating frequency DC to 18 GHz
- Quad 40 Gbps qSFP+ ports
- Intel Stratix 10 FPGA SoC
- Compact form factor (3U rackmount)
- Storage & Playback Solution
configured to work with Cyan
Integration
As a provider with extensive experience in both the SDR solutions and integration support for all customers, Per Vices makes it easy for customers to include new high performance SDRs into their new and existing systems. We work with you to provide scaled implementation and testing to follow your organizations needs and timeline. We offer: site and equipment planning, hardware deployment, expected performance calculations, customization to meet specific hardware and software interfaces, monitoring and maintenance packages, custom filtering through hardware, and more.
Per Vices has experience designing and developing hardware, firmware, and software that offer:
- Integration into other devices
- Network deployments
- Direct access to FPGA for custom use
- Changes to RF performance to meet aggressive requirements
The requirements associated with this project called for 8 channels capturing at least 480 MHz of data at 16 bits I and 16 bits Q and storing that data for a duration of 10 minutes. The result called for a sustained data capture and transfer rate of 122.88 Gbps of data and the storage of ~9.3 TB of high speed data with lossless performance.
There were two pieces of hardware required for this project; the SDR and the host/recording unit. This solution allowed us to meet the customer requirements associated with data capture, data handling, data storage, and ensuring sufficient resources were available for processing the data.
As part of the work, we designed a suitable architecture for the data storage system that ensured the data being transferred from the SDR to the host/storage system was able to be streamed to disk. Due to the considerable amount of data and the speeds at which the data was being transferred, great care was taken to ensure that we were not saturating the write speeds associated with the NVMe drives. The end solution met all requirements while offering example applications and removable hard drives for easy servicing in the future.
During the course of the discussions we had multiple calls and exchanges with the customer to ensure we fully understood both the RF requirements (bandwidth, number of radio chains, operating frequency, etc.) as well as their data storage requirements (how much data needed to be stored, the processing capabilities required, the preferred data format, etc.) to ensure we fully understood the project objectives.
As the RF project objectives were met with our stock Cyan solution, the primary focus was on designing and building a host/storage solution that would be capable of handling the very high data rates. This required multiple discussions with several manufacturers to determine the best path forward. Ultimately the solution included a server system with and FPGA accelerated NIC with onboard RAM, 40G licenses, a series of NVMe drives, and a significant amount of integration effort to ensure the software would fully utilize the hardware capabilities.
The customer was evaluating different options but ultimately chose Per Vices as the preferred designer and manufacturer for this project. This decision was made due to the following major factors:
The performance of the Cyan platform; including the bandwidth, tuning range, number of channels and digital backhaul
- Availability of COTS stock product that met their radio needs and the demonstrated experience in delivering a system that could meet their data storage and processing needs
- No additional development costs were required
- Fast and effective communication between both parties’ engineering teams
- Reduction in supply chain complexity by having a single vendor provide a complete solution that involved both the radio and data storage/host system
Articles
SDRs: Solving Problems in Spectrum Management
Military Embedded Systems
2021-10-25
The solution: Software-defined radios (SDRs), which are capable of enforcing spectrum policy and removing interference from the allocated frequency bands by incorporating a number of suitable strategies....
(Read more)
Software-Defined Radio: High Performance, Flexible Technology for Spectrum Monitoring
Microwave Journal
2021-06-14
The software-defined radio (SDR) paradigm replaces hardware with flexible software-based components that are inexpensive and easily.....
(Read More)
High Data Rate Considerations for SDR in Spectrum Monitoring and Recording
Embedded Computing Design
2021-04-26
An ever-increasing number of technologies are using unprecedented levels of bandwidth. Despite the increase in captured data, it is generally best to collect as large a portion.....
(Read More)
Advancements in Spectrum Monitoring Leverage Software-Defined Radios
Evaluation Engineering
2021-03-19
Spectrum monitoring has become a critically important task in many sectors to help identify spectrum use and ensure compliance with standards and government regulation.....
(Read More)
Media + Resources Page.