GRCon21 - LibIIO and gr-iio

Presented by Paul Cercueil at GNU Radio Conference 2021 In this talk, we will provide an overview of the newly merged gr-iio module inside GNU Radio. gr-iio is a module based around the Industrial Input/Output (IIO) framework, which has been in the upstream Linux kernels since 2011 and is responsible for handling sensors, converters, integrated transceivers, and other real-world I/O devices. It provides a hardware abstraction layer with a consistent API for the user-space applications. The IIO framework supports discrete components as well as integrated transceivers like the Analog Devices AD9361, a 2x2 RF Agile Transceiver, found in many SDR products like the ADALM-PLUTO. The newly merged module both provides access to generic IIO devices, but also contains device-specific blocks for certain SDRs. This talk will provide a basic introduction to IIO, libIIO, and gr-iio. Including a small tutorial on setting up generic blocks for any IIO based driver. Finally, a deep dive will go into how buffer streaming operates based on your target platform with some performance metrics. Since gr-iio is now within mainline GNU Radio, this talk will provide a great foundation to the newly available blocks to the general community, and be a valuable resource to those just starting out with devices like the ADALM-PLUTO. https://events.gnuradio.org/event/8/