This file contains important information about RFmx LTE, including installation instructions, new features, a partial list of bugs fixed, and known issues.
Overview
New Features
Supported Hardware
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
Application Software Support
Installation Instructions
Installed Software
File Locations
Executable
Finding Examples
Accessing the Documentation
Product Security and Critical Updates
Behavior Changes
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.
New Features
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 (EAP)
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)
RFmx LTE 2.5 includes the following new features:
Addition of ModAcc, ACP, SEM, CHP, and OBW measurements for NB-IoT
Addition of EUTRA offset channel definition for ACP measurement
Addition of IBE mask for UEs supporting 3GPP Release 11 and higher
Addition of gain imbalance and quadrature skew measurements for downlink LAA
Addition of APIs to perform self-calibration and partial self-calibration
Addition of RFmx Debug Configuration Utility to configure debug settings
Support for 3GPP Release 14 NB-IoT, includes single tone and multitone (3, 6, and 12 tones), Format 1 and Format 2, 15 kHz, and 3.75 kHz configurations
Support for demodulating Cat-M1 waveforms with frequency hopping and guard symbols
Support for configurable number of offsets in downlink ACP
Support for NS_35 (Band 71) and NS_27 additional spectral emission mask requirements
Support for querying configuration attributes without calling RFmxLTE Commit API
Support for LabVIEW 2018 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Support for monitoring a RFmx application in RFmx Soft Front Panel
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-5820
PXIe-5830 (EAP)
PXIe-5840
Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help.
System RequirementsRFmx LTE has the following requirements:
Processor—1 GHz 64-bit (x64) processor
RAM—4 GB*
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 19.0 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:
Windows 10/8.11/7 SP12
Windows Server 2012 R21
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP12
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, LabWindows/CVI 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.
[tr][/tr][/table][table]
Application SoftwareVersions Supported by RFmx LTE
LabVIEW2016, 2017, 2018 SP1 f4 patch, or 2019Other 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.
To use the .NET API, you must install the .NET class libraries or the .NET wrapper in addition to the NI device driver. For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, as well as the download location of the installer files, refer to National Instruments .NET Driver Support.
Installation Instructions
NI automates RFmx LTE installation using NI Package Manager. 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.
RFmx LTE is available for download from NI Software Product Downloads.
Installed SoftwareInstalled Software
is an alias for the following National Instruments file folder location: Users\Public\Public Documents\National Instruments
is an alias for the following National Instruments file folder location:
Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\MeasurementStudioVS2010
is an alias for the following National Instruments file folder location:
Program Files (x86)\National Instruments
is an alias for the following file folder location:
Windows\SysWOW64 for 32-bit programs and windows\system32 for 64-bit programs
Select Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx LTE»RFmx Soft Front Panel to launch the to launch the RFmx Soft Front Panel (64-bit).
Finding Examples
You can access all the installed RFmx LTE examples at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx LTE»RFmx LTE Examples.
Accessing the Documentation
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 19.0 Readme
HTML (this document)
Contains information about supported hardware and operating systems, new features, fixed issues, and legal notices.
For the most recent revisions of documentation and for newly released documentation, visit ni.com/manuals.
Accessing VIs
RFmx LTE palette VIs are available from the Functions»Measurement I/O»NI-RFmx»LTE palette.
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 19.0 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.
The following items are the behavior changes in RFmx LTE 2.5 from RFmx LTE 2.4.
Spectral flatness range 1 and range 2 limits are changed to use test requirements.
Dropped support for RFmx LTE Measurement Interactive Panel 64-bit.
The following items are the behavior changes in RFmx LTE 2.3.1 from RFmx LTE 2.3.
Changed the default value of the IQ Power Edge Source property to ""(empty string).
The alias 'default@LTE' for the default signal name is accepted as a valid signal name in a selector string parameter.
LabVIEW built binaries using RFmx versions older than 2.2 are no longer supported.
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 CAR ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.
The following items are changes in RFmx LTE 3.0 from RFmx LTE 2.5.
ID
Fixed Issue
706047
Fixed an occasional crash which might occur on closing LabVIEW 2017 IDE or LabVIEW 2017 built applications that use RFmx.
719203
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.
707274
Fixed an issue where the ModAcc RMS phase error per symbol trace was incorrect.
719418
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.
The following items are changes in RFmx LTE 2.4 from RFmx LTE 2.3.1.
ID
Fixed Issue
665930
Fixed an issue where in-band emission (IBE) test requirement table for release 8-10 UEs is made 3GPP Specification release 14 compliant.
664616
Fixed an issue where LTE uplink equalizer coefficients are calculated using the least square method as per section E.3.3 of 3GPP TS 36.521-1 specification.
655346
Fixed an issue where DMRS auto-detect was internally getting enabled when hopping is enabled.
654382
Fixed an issue with using special subframes in case of DL TDD for channel estimation.
630327
Fixed an issue with computing channel estimation and CFO for the slots under measurement to improve standard deviation of EVM.
640495
Fixed an issue where switching between measurements from an RFmx cellular personality to Demod, resulted in higher EVM on 5668R.
The following items are changes in RFmx LTE 2.3.1 from RFmx LTE 2.3.
ID
Fixed Issue
650095
Fixed an issue where the RFmxInstr Close API did not abort a measurement in progress, but instead waited for the measurement to finish before closing.
650083
Fixed an issue with RFmxInstr Save All Configurations API to save the attribute configurations depending on the corresponding number of channels configured by user.
648703
Fixed an issue where passing NULL as selector string in a few C functions, caused the function to crash.
655756
Fixed an issue where values were swapped on configuring the SEM Offset Start Freq property higher than the SEM Offset Start Freq property.
646771
Fixed an issue with configuring SEM offsets, other than offset0, when the Mask Type is Custom.
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. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.
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:
For more information about silent installations of individual NI products, refer to KB 4CJDP38M, Automating the Installation of a Single Installer.
For more information about silent installations of NI products in a suite, such as NI Developer Suite, refer to KB 4GGGDQH0, How Do I Automate the Installation of a Suited Installer?.
To determine what version of NI Installers your product contains, refer to KB 4CJDR18M, How Can I Determine the Type and Version of My NI Installer?.
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 National Instruments 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, will not install or run 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:
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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 \_Legal Information and directories.
EULAs are located in the \Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
Review \_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.
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