vrt-iq-tools is a collection of programs used for streaming IQ data using (a slightly modified variant of) libvrt, which in turn implements part of the ANSI/VITA 49.0 Radio Transport (VRT) standard. Most of the tools use VRT streams over ZMQ sockets.

This package needs much of libboost, libzmq, libfftw3 and libfftw3f. On a clean Ubuntu 22.04 system, these can be installed with:

apt install libboost-chrono-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev libzmq3-dev libfftw3-dev libfftw3-single3

Optional dependencies:

• librtlsdr-dev for RTL-SDR support
• libuhd-dev for UHD (USRP) support
• libiio-dev and libad9361-dev for IIO (PLUTO) support
• libgnuradio-pmt3.10.1 for gnuradio support
• nvidia-cuda-toolkit-gcc for GPU acceleration of some tools
• libpsrdada for DADA support, see installation instructions

git clone https://github.com/tftelkamp/vrt-iq-tools
cd vrt-iq-tools
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install -j

• usrp_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from an Ettus USRP SDR device (e.g. B210). Also supports transmit.
• rfspace_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from RFSpace SDR device.
• rtlsdr_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from RTL-SDR device.
• airspy_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from Airspy R2 and mini device.
• iio_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from an IIO device, such as the ADALM-PLUTO.
• sigmf_to_vrt: Create VRT stream from SigMF recording, or with --vrt from a VRT recording.
• play_vrt: Create VRT stream from SigMF recording, intended for transmitting.

• vrt_to_sigmf: Store IQ and metadata as SigMF recording, or with --vrt as raw VRT.
• vrt_spectrum: Create spectra, store in CSV or ECSV format (compatible with Astropy). With --gnuplot, output can be piped to Gnuplot. With --fftmax you can show only the frequency of the bin with the maximum. Used for Doppler tracking. Options --two and --four to square and double square the signal before making a spectrum.
• vrt_to_filterbank: Create spectra, store in sigproc filterbank format.
• vrt_rffft: Create spectra and store in STRF format.
• vrt_pulsar: Channelize, dedisperse and fold pulsar data.
• vrt_tuner: Extract a sub-band from a VRT stream.
• vrt_channelizer: Polyphase Channelizer, extracts all sub-bands from a VRT stream.
• vrt_merge: Merges two VRT streams into a single synchronized stream with two channels. Requires equal timestamps in the streams.
• vrt_quantize: 1-bit quantization of a VRT stream.
• vrt_correlate: Create cross-spectrum of two channels.

• vrt_gpu_fftmax: Create spectra, store only the frequency of the bin with the maximum. Used for Doppler tracking.
• vrt_gpu_channelizer: Polyphase GPU Channelizer, extracts all sub-bands from a VRT stream.

• vrt_to_stdout: Stream IQ to standard output. Useful for streaming to PhantomSDR.
• vrt_to_rtl_tcp: Stream as 8-bit RTL-TCP stream.
• vrt_to_gnuradio: Stream IQ to ZeroMQ socket to be used in GNURadio.
• vrt_to_fifo: Write IQ to a fifo buffer.
• vrt_to_udp: Stream IQ as fc32 UDP packets.
• vrt_to_dada: Stream to a psrdada ring buffer, to be used with pulsar software such as dspsr.

• vrt_metadata: Print metadata of a VRT stream.
• vrt_forwarder: Forward ZMQ stream.
• vrt_to_void: Template for new clients and connection testing.
• control_vrt: Control devices, e.g. to set gain or frequency.

MIT