What Is the Difference between NI and Ettus Research USRP Devices?

The key differences between NI and Ettus Research USRP SDRs are shown in the following summary chart:

Table 1. Key Differences between Ettus Research SDRs and NI SDRs

NI and Ettus Research USRP SDRs have two main hardware differences: how the hardware is delivered and which Ettus hardware is included and marketed in the NI catalog.

1.  Preassembled versus modular delivery

One of the main differences between NI and Ettus Research SDRs is how the hardware is delivered. NI USRP SDRs are sold preassembled inside an enclosure, whereas the Ettus Research USRP SDRs are sold modularly as kits with the RF daughterboard and motherboard sold separately. For example, the USRP-2945 from NI is the same hardware as an X310 motherboard plus a TwinRX daughterboard from Ettus Research. Refer to Table 2 to compare the equivalent USRP models from NI and Ettus Research:

Table 2. NI versus Ettus Research SDR Model Numbers

One of the benefits of a preassembled USRP SDR is that, prior to shipping, the device undergoes production testing as an assembled unit; but, when it is sold as a kit, each component is tested individually. However, the benefit of purchasing the motherboard and daughterboard separately is that some combinations are not available as a single, preassembled device from NI.

2.  Catalog

All NI USRP SDRs have a hardware equivalent in the Ettus Research catalog, but not all Ettus Research SDRs have a hardware equivalent in the NI catalog. For example, the networked N Series SDRs and the embedded E Series SDRs are not available under the NI brand.

One difference between NI and Ettus Research USRP SDRs is driver support. All NI USRP SDRs are supported by NI-USRP, which is a driver you can use to program your USRP with LabVIEW 20XX and/or LabVIEW NXG, depending on your hardware model. LabVIEW is a graphical design environment that can be used to interface with the USRP SDR for configuration and streaming. For models with a programmable FPGA and/or real-time processor, you can use LabVIEW to program the host, real-time target, and FPGA using a single design environment.

The abstracted design environment helps accelerate the design of wireless systems and makes FPGA programming accessible to those without HDL design expertise. If you have third-party IP that you want to incorporate, such as MathWorks MATLAB® or VHDL code, you can import this IP directly from LabVIEW. To provide a higher level starting point and accelerate your application design, NI also offers LabVIEW Communications application frameworks for LTE, 802.11, and MIMO.

All Ettus Research USRP SDRs and NI USRP SDRs are supported by the USRP Hardware Driver, which is published by NI’s R&D organization under open-source licenses. This driver facilitates application development on USRP hardware in C/C++ and offers cross-platform support for multiple industry-standard development environments and frameworks, such as RFNoC, GNU Radio, HDL Coder, and MathWorks MATLAB and Simulink®. As dual-licensed software, the USRP Hardware Driver is available under the open-source GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) and an alternative, less-restrictive license for volume OEM customers deploying Ettus Research hardware.

Though NI USRP SDRs are natively supported by the USRP Hardware Driver, you can also provision Ettus Research USRP SDRs with an NI equivalent to use the LabVIEW workflow. View an example.

Despite the USRP Hardware Driver’s native support of all NI USRP SDRs, the FPGA image shipped with the unit may not be compatible with the latest version of the driver. Please check the firmware and FPGA image of each device to ensure that the USRP Hardware Driver works properly.

See Table 3 for a summary of the supported software.

Table 3. Comparison of NI and Ettus Research Driver Software Support

Although the two brands seem distinct, the USRP SDRs under the Ettus Research brand and the NI brand are more alike than different. In both cases, the hardware is the same, and in most cases, both sets of hardware are supported by both the NI-USRP driver and the USRP Hardware Driver.