RFmx LTE 19.1 Readme

October 2019

This file contains important information about the RFmx LTE, 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 Help

Finding Examples

Product Security and Critical Updates

Behavior Changes

Known Issues

Bug Fixes

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

RFmx LTE Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021

Legal Information


Overview

RFmx LTE is an optimized API for performing physical layer measurements on LTE cellular standard signals. RFmx LTE is an application software that provides simple access to advanced optimization techniques such as multimeasurement parallelism and multi-DUT measurements. RFmx LTE additionally supports NB-IoT/eMTC and LTE-V2X.

New Features

RFmx LTE 19.1 includes the following new features:

  • Support for PXIe-5841, PXIe-5831, and PXIe-5830
  • Support for LTE-V2X or sidelink. Supported measurements are ModAcc, ACP, SEM, CHP, and OBW

RFmx LTE 19.0 includes the following new features:

  • Support for LabVIEW 2019 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Support for De-embedding S-Parameter External Attenuation Tables
  • Addition of Reference Level Headroom property
  • Support for PXIe-5830
  • Cat-M2 Release 14 Uplink Support

RFmx LTE 3.0 includes the following new features:

  • Support for PXIe-5820
  • Support for self-calibration in the RFmx Soft Front Panel
  • Support for Auto Level in RFmx Soft Front Panel
  • NS_04 additional SEM requirements according to Table 6.6.2.2.3.2-3 of the 3GPP TS 36.521-1 specification (Release 12 and later)

Supported Hardware

The following hardware products are supported in all operating systems listed in the Supported Operating Systems section.

Vector Signal Analyzers

  • PXIe-5663
  • PXIe-5663E
  • PXIe-5665
  • PXIe-5668
  • PXIe-5668 with PXIe-5698

Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Analyzers Help .

Vector Signal Transceivers

  • PXIe-5644
  • PXIe-5645
  • PXIe-5646
  • PXIe-5840
  • PXIe-5841
  • PXIe-5820
  • PXIe-5830
  • PXIe-5831

Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help .

System Requirements

RFmx LTE has the following requirements:
  • Processor—1 GHz 64-bit (x64) processor
  • 4 GB RAM *
  • A screen resolution of 1,024 x 768
  • Windows 10/8.1/7, 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 LTE 19.1 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:

  • Windows 10/8.1 1 /7 SP1 2
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 1
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 2

1 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.

2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.

Note   In 2019, RFmx LTE dropped support for all 32-bit Windows operating systems. RFmx LTE will not install or run on an unsupported OS. Refer to RFmx LTE Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021 for information about future OS support.

Application Software Support

RFmx LTE supports the following application software versions, including service packs. You should install application software, such as LabVIEW or Microsoft Visual Studio®, before installing RFmx LTE. To add support for application software installed after installing RFmx LTE modify your RFmx LTE installation or launch the RFmx LTE installer again. If you are not using NI application software, refer to  Microsoft Visual Studio Support .

Application Software Versions Supported by RFmx LTE
LabVIEW 2016, 2017, 2018 SP1 f4 patch, or 2019

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 LTE .NET Class Library, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The RFmx LTE .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.

Installation Instructions

NI installs RFmx LTE using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, RFmx LTE installs NI Package Manager to handle the installation of your NI software. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.

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\SysWOW64 for 32-bit programs and 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)
  • 32-bit: <NIDir> \Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\lib32\msvc
  • 64-bit: <NIDir> \Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\lib64\msvc
.NET Class Libraries
Assemblies <MSTUDIOVS2010DIR> \DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.RFmx.LteMX.Fx40.dll
<MSTUDIOVS2010DIR> \DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.RFmx.InstrMX.Fx40.dll
<MSTUDIOVS2010DIR> \DotNET\Assemblies\Current\NationalInstruments.Common.dll

Executable

Select Start » All Programs » National Instruments» RFmx LTE» RFmx Soft Front Panel to launch the RFmx Soft Front Panel (64-bit).

Accessing the API

RFmx LTE palette VIs are available from the Functions » Measurement I/O » NI-RFmx » LTE palette.

Accessing the Help

Documentation for RFmx LTE is located at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx LTE»RFmx LTE Documentation . The documentation set is composed of the following documents.

Document Format Description
RFmx LTE Help HTML/Windows Help Contains primary help content for RFmx LTE. This help file is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
  • An introduction to RFmx LTE
  • How to get started with application development
  • A complete reference for all RFmx LTE programming functions and VIs
RFmx LTE 19.1 Readme HTML (this document) Contains information about supported hardware and operating systems, new features, fixed issues, and legal notices.

Finding Examples

You can access all the installed RFmx LTE examples at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx LTE»RFmx LTE 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 National Instruments products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from National Instruments.

Behavior Changes

The following items are behavior changes in RFmx LTE 19.1 from RFmx LTE 19.0.

  • Dropped support for Cleaner Spectrum property on PXIe-5830 and PXIe-5831 devices
  • Obsoleted RFmxLTE Analyze (IQ) and RFmxLTE Analyze (Spectrum) APIs. Use RFmxLTE Analyze (IQ, 1 Wfm) and RFmxLTE Analyze (Spectrum, 1 Wfm) APIs instead

The following items are behavior changes in RFmx LTE 19.0 from RFmx LTE 3.0.

  • Dropped support for LabVIEW 2015.
  • Deprecated the Recommended I/Q Measurement Bandwidth property in RFInstr.

The following items are the behavior changes in RFmx LTE 3.0 from RFmx LTE 2.5.

  • ModAcc synchronization algorithm assumes that all component carriers are time aligned.

Known Issues

You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the RFmx LTE Known Issues for an up-to-date list of known issues.

Bug Fixes

The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in RFmx LTE . This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of the RFmx LTE . If you have a Bug ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.

The following items are changes in RFmx LTE 19.1 from RFmx LTE 19.0

ID Fixed Issue
249283 Fixed an issue to report an error when measurement bandwidth exceeds the device instantaneous bandwidth on PXIe-5668 and PXIe-5665 devices.
234240 Fixed an intermittent error occurring at Analyze IQ and Analyze Spectrum APIs when performing a composite measurement with different averaging count for each measurement

The following items are changes in RFmx LTE 3.0 from RFmx LTE 2.5.

ID Fixed Issue
248862 Fixed an occasional crash which might occur on closing LabVIEW 2017 IDE or LabVIEW 2017 built applications that use RFmx.
244193 Fixed an issue where a timeout error was thrown when the digital trigger was configured when Using breakpoints in C/C++/.NET application was selected in the PXIe-5840.
243062 Fixed an issue where the ModAcc RMS phase error per symbol trace was incorrect.
243068 Fixed an issue where the sweep time for the NBIoT 3.75kHz subcarrier spacing was incorrect in LTE ACP measurement when the Auto Sweep time was set to True .

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 4.0, 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 4.0 separately before you install NI software.

For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10 .

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8 .

RFmx LTE Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021

RFmx LTE will drop support for Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport .

For detailed information about NI application software product life cycles, visit ni.com/info and enter one of the following Info Codes:

Product Info Code
LabVIEW lifecycle
LabWindows/CVI cvi_lifecycle
Measurement Studio mstudiolifecycle
TestStand tslcp
DIAdem ddlcp
SignalExpress selcp
VeriStand nivslifecycle

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.

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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 .

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