Design of A Basic Block

How to program a new block for GNU
Radio and GNU Radio Companion

1 Introduction
We present in this document an example of development, compilation and deployment
of a new GNU Radio block to be used in the GNU Radio Companion (grc)
environment. The designed block corresponds to a gain amplifier called
gr_my_amplifier_ff and whose gain can be changed in run-time through the graphical
interface.
This work has been elaborated from the information contained in the GNU Radio web
site (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/doc/howto-write-a-block.html) together
with different patches published by users of the tool. More information is also included
in the README and README.hacking files. It is highly recommended to read these
sources before proceeding with this document.
This document describes the whole process of creating a new module and a new block
from scratch, if you intend only to add a new block to a previously existing module the
process is much easier. Also we want to make it clear that this example have been tested
in Ubuntu 10.04 with the 3.2.2 version of GNU Radio and GNU Radio Companion.
Together with the current example we provide some template files, which users could
change (making query replace of names as explained in appendix A) in order to develop
a new signal processing block. It is important to highlight that the aim of this tutorial is
not to teach signal processing programming with C++ but to give a general description
of the use of the GNU Radio environment.
Finally, you can download the example and the templates from the following links:
and
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/attachments/191/gr-my-basic.zip
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/attachments/192/gr-my-blocks-template.zip . If you need
some technical support authors may be contacted at: asier.alonso@tecnalia.com
2 Root Folder
Once you have downloaded the example you may open the project which contains the
following directories and files:
Directories:
o apps: Contains test applications and examples.
o config: Contains different configuration files which must not be modified.
o lib: Contains source files (.cc and .h) for the developed blocks.
o swig: As GNU Radio combines C++ programmed blocks with Python
flowgraphs, Swig tool is employed to automatically generate python
interfaces for C++ blocks. .i files required by this tool are stored in this
folder.
o python: Contains python scripts.
o grc: Contains the .xml files needed by the grc tool.
Each folder contains a Makefile.am file because autotools (autoconf, automake and
libtool) are employed in order to automatically compile and link. Also due to this tools
the following files are included in the root folder: AUTHORS, bootstrap, ChangeLog,
config.guess, config.sub, configure.ac, Makefile.am, Makefile.common, Makefile.swig,
Makefile.swig.gen.t, NEWS, README, README.hacking, version.sh.
3 lib Folder
This folder contains all the C++ source files (gr_my_amplifier_ff.cc and
gr_my_amplifier_ff.h) and the Makefile.am for compilation. All the signal processing
functionality of the block is inserted in the work method of the .cc file. In the amplifier
this method is as follows:
int gr_my_amplifier_ff::work
(int noutput_items, gr_vector_const_void_star &
input_items,gr_vector_void_star &output_items) {
const float *in = (const float *) input_items[0];
float *out = (float *) output_items[0];
for (int i = 0; i < noutput_items; i++){
out[i] = in[i] * (float)d_k;
}
return noutput_items;
}
Obviously this a very simple example of a variable gain amplifier with little signal
processing, but your code may be as complex as you desire.
4 swig Folder
This folder contains the files employed by the SWIG tool to create python interfaces for
C++ classes. These files are: gr_my.i, gr_my_amplifier_ff.i, Makefile.am and
Makefile.swig.gen. Astonishingly, the provided Makefile.swig.gen file is incorrect and
must be regenerated afterwards (explained in section 6) but surely due to a
configuration error the autotools need it in order to work correctly.
5 grc Folder
This folder contains the files employed by the grc tool, i.e. the definition file
myBlock.xml and the compilation one Makefile.am.
myBlock.xml
tag name: the name we want to assign to our block in the graphical interface.
tag key: the name of the C++ block.
tag category: The folder in which our block will be clasified in the graphical
interface.
tag import: make reference to the module.
tag make: The invocation to the public constructor of the block.
tag calback: Includes the methods for changing the attributes related to the
parameters inside the block.
tag param: Characteristics of each parameter, name in the interface, internal

name and type
tag chek: Checking rules for all the parameters, e.g. param1>= 1
tags sink and source: The example is prepared for one input and one output.
Otherwise, add as many entries as inputs/outputs.
6 Configuration, Compilation and Deployment

The next step is to compile and deploy the module. Open a terminal go to the project
root directory and execute the following commands:
$ sudo ./bootstrap
$ sudo ./configure
$ cd swig
$ sudo make generate-makefile-swig (this is done for
regenerating the Makefile.swig.gen file in the swig folder)
$ cd ..
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo ldconfig (only the first time the module is installed)
Once these commands are succesfully executed you have your block ready to be used
with the gnu radio companion interface. So you can run the graphical tool and see that
our module and block have been added to the list of blocks on the right. Now it is
possible to add our new block to different designs and change its gain with the gnu radio
companion graphical interface.
In the figure the amplifier has been added to a mock flow graph consisting of a USRP2
source, a FM demodulator, an audio sink and our block. The window to change the gain
value has been opened by double-clicking in the block.
Appendix A: Templates Folder

A template folder is provided so new users can employ it to create their new blocks. The
template has the following naming convention:
o myModule: Name of the new module to be created. GNU Radio naming
conventions indicate that it should include some prefix which indicates the
function of the blocks contained in the module. In our case this prefix
should be nearly in all cases gr and therefore, our module should have a
name like gr_my_module, as GNU radio conventions recommend _ to
separate names.
o myBlock: Name of the block to be developed. As in the previous case,
there exist some rules for choosing an appropriate one: first of all, the
name of the block should make reference to the module which it belongs
to and it should have a suffix which indicates the type of its inputs and
outputs (f for float, c for complex, s for short and i for integer). According
to
all
this
rules
an
appropriate
name
could
be
gr_my_module_my_block_ff, assuming float type inputs and outputs.
o myFolder: Name of the folder containing the new module. Although there
are no indications for its naming. A uniform name could be gr-my-module.
o make_myBlock: Name of the public constructor of our blocks C++ class.
o param1: Name of our blocks input parameter (we are considering only
one parameter in the template)
o d_param1: internal attribute of our blocks class. It is permanently
associated to the input parameter. According to GNU Radio naming
convention the d prefix is added.
o grcName: Name of the developed block in the grc interface.
o grcParam1: internal name of the parameter in the grc.
o grcParam1Name: name of the parameter in the graphical interface.
o grcParamType: data type of the parameter.

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How to program a new block for GNU

Radio and GNU Radio Companion

tag key: the name of the C++ block.

tag import: make reference to the module.

tag make: The invocation to the public constructor of the block.

parameters inside the block.

tag param: Characteristics of each parameter, name in the interface, internal

6 Configuration, Compilation and Deployment

Appendix A: Templates Folder

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