This file contains important information about the RFmx NR, 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 NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021
Legal Information
Overview
The RFmx NR personality is a highly optimized API for performing physical layer measurements on 5G New Radio (NR) signals. RFmx NR is completely interoperable with all RFmx APIs. It provides simple access to the most advanced optimization techniques such as multimeasurement parallelism and multi-DUT measurements. The result is extremely fast and high-quality measurements with minimal software development efforts.
New Features
RFmx NR 20.6 includes the following new features:
Support for updates from 3GPP TS 38.101-1/2 v16.4 specification in Adjacent Channel Power measurement to support intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation for FR1 and updates in Channel Measurement Bandwidth for FR2
Support for estimation of IQ impairments for receive model in ModAcc
Support for compensation of IQ impairments in ModAcc
Support for measurement of I/Q timing skew in ModAcc
Support for additional results in spectral flatness measurement
Support for additional bands: 14, 18, 29, 30, 48, 65, 90, 92, 94
Support for PUSCH 8-PSK modulation scheme
Support for PXIe-5832
RFmx NR 20.0 includes the following new features:
Support for LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Support for Start trigger, Advance trigger, and Events in RFInstr
Support to configure RFInstr properties in the context of a signal configuration
Support for PXIe-5841 with PXIe-5655
Support for updates from 3GPP TS 38.104 NR Release 16 specification March 2020
Support for PUSCH and PDSCH DMRS for Release 16 as per 3GPP TS 38.211 specification v16.1.0
Support for Downlink Test Model 2a and 3.1a for Frequency Range 2
Support for 1024 QAM modulation in PDSCH and PUSCH
Support for user defined Downlink Multi-user configuration
Support for Downlink SS/PBCH EVM in ModAcc measurement for Case A-E
Speed improvements in ModAcc measurement
Support for speed optimization of the ModAcc measurement by bypassing certain operations
ModAcc robustness improvements for low RB allocations in PDSCH/PUSCH
Support for FFT Overlap in the Sequential FFT method of the ACP measurement
Support for Sequential FFT in ACP for measurement bandwidth greater than device instantaneous bandwidth in PXIe-5830/5831/5840/5841
Support for measurement bandwidth equal to channel bandwidth in CHP measurement
Support for Bandwidth Optimization Enabled mode in composite measurements
RFmx NR 19.1 includes the following new features:
Support for PXIe-5830/5831/5841
Support for updates from 3GPP NR Release 15 specification v15.6.0 (June 2019)
Support for non-contiguous carrier aggregation
Support for power vs time (PVT) measurement for Uplink
Support for additional offset channel spacing for carrier aggregation in the ACP measurement
Support for auto increment cell id for carrier aggregation
Support for PDSCH EVM measurement in the presence of PDCCH
Enhanced robustness of ModAcc measurement to analyze filtered waveforms, sequence and group hopping, and impaired signals
Added capability to include/exclude DMRS and PTRS EVM in Composite EVM result
Supported Hardware
The following hardware products are supported in all operating systems listed in the Supported Operating Systems section.
Vector Signal Analyzers
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-5646
PXIe-5840
PXIe-5820
PXIe-5830
PXIe-5831
PXIe-5832
PXIe-5841
PXIe-5841 with PXIe-5655
Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help.
System Requirements
RFmx NR 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 NR 20.6 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:
Windows 10/8.1 1 /7 SP1 2
Windows Server 2016
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 and KB3125574 for more information about how to install these updates.
Note In 2019, RFmx NR dropped support for all 32-bit Windows operating systems. RFmx NR will not install or run on an unsupported OS. Refer to RFmx NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021 for information about future OS support.
Note In 2016, RFmx NR dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use RFmx NR 20.6 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing RFmx NR 20.6, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio on an unsupported OS.
For more information about the changes to our OS support for 2016, visit ni.com/r/OSSupport2016.
Application Software Support
RFmx NR supports the following application software versions, including service packs. You should install application software, such as LabVIEW or Microsoft Visual Studio®, before installing RFmx NR. To add support for application software installed after installing RFmx NR modify your RFmx NR installation or launch the RFmx NR installer again. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.
Application Software
Versions Supported by RFmx NR
LabVIEW
2017, 2018 SP1 f4 patch, 2019 SP1, 2020
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 NR .NET Class Library, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The RFmx NR .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 or .NET Framework 4.5.
Installation Instructions
NI installs RFmx NR using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, RFmx NR 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.
Notes
If Windows Update is enabled, the installation process might hang if Windows Update interferes with the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Run-Time. Visit ni.com/r/exjq43 for more information and steps to resolve this issue.
Use the serial number that is included with your software to activate RFmx NR. For more information on RFmx NR activation, refer to National Instruments Software Activation .
Installed Software
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 NR » RFmx Soft Front Panel to launch the RFmx Soft Front Panel (64-bit).
Accessing the API
RFmx NR palette VIs are available from the Functions » Measurement I/O » NI-RFmx » NR palette.
Accessing the Help
Documentation for RFmx NR is located at Start » All Programs » National Instruments » RFmx NR » RFmx NR Documentation. The documentation set is composed of the following documents.
Document
Format
Description
RFmx NR Help
HTML/Windows Help
Contains primary help content for RFmx NR. This help file is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
An introduction to RFmx NR
How to get started with application development
A complete reference for all RFmx NR programming functions and VIs
RFmx NR 20.6 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 NR examples at Start » All Programs » National Instruments » RFmx NR » RFmx NR 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 are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 20.6 from RFmx NR 20.0.
ModAcc IQ Impairments Estimation Enabled to ModAcc IQ Mismatch Estimation Enabled
ModAcc:IQ Impairments:Estimation Enabled to ModAcc:IQ Impairments:IQ Mismatch Estimation Enabled
Changed measurement limits for SEM in-band emission and spectral flatness measurement to the limits defined in 3GPP 38.141 and 3GPP 38.521 specifications
The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 20.0 from RFmx NR 19.1.
Updated measurement bandwidth for Uplink FR2 contiguous CA in ACP and CHP
Frequency segment definition of Operating Band Unwanted Emission in SEM measurement aligned with section 9.7.4.3.3 of 3GPP TS 38.104 specification v15.9.0/v16.3.0
NR SS/PBCH block parameters CRB Offset and Subcarrier Offset in ModAcc measurement are aligned to be 3GPP specification compliant
The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 19.1 from RFmx NR 19.0.
Change in default value of Transmit LO Architecture property to LO per Subblock. In this mode:
IQ Origin offset result for multicarrier configurations is reported in Subblock IQ Origin Offset Mean result property
Quadrature error and IQ Gain Imbalance results are not supported for multicarrier configurations
Updated nominal spacing definition for carrier aggregation cases as per Rel 15 Specification June 2019 v 15.6.0. For waveforms compliant to previous Rel 15 releases, use user-defined spacing definition.
Composite EVM result does not include the EVM of DMRS and PTRS. You must set ModAcc Composite Results Include DMRS and ModAcc Composite Results Include PTRS properties to True to include the respective EVMs in the Composite EVM result
Dropped support for ModAcc EVM Exclusion Period property for Downlink measurement as per the 3GPP NR specification Rel 15 June 2019
Dropped support for Cleaner Spectrum property on PXIe-5830 and 5831
Obsoleted RFmxNR Analyze (IQ) and RFmxNR Analyze (Spectrum) APIs. Use RFmxNR Analyze (IQ, 1 Wfm) and RFmxNR Analyze (Spectrum, 1 Wfm) APIs instead
When you set the Frequency Range property to Range 2 , the new enums, FR2 Category A , FR2 Category B , added to the gNodeB Category property are the only valid enums.
The following are the behavior changes in RFmx NR 19.0 from RFmx NR 3.0.
Dropped support for LabVIEW 2015
Deprecated the Recommended I/Q Measurement Bandwidth property in RFInstr
To load and run a Downlink configuration file saved from RFmx 3.0, the user has to explicitly set value of Downlink Channel Configuration Mode property to User Defined
Known Issues
You can access the RFmx NR known issues list online at RFmx NR 20.6 Known Issues.
Bug Fixes
You can access the RFmx NR bug fix list online at RFmx NR 20.6 Bug Fixes.
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 4.6.2, 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 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.
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 NR Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021
RFmx NR 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.
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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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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.