This file contains important information about the RFmx Waveform Creator, including system requirements and installation instructions.
Overview
New Features
Supported Hardware
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
Installation Instructions
Executable
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 Waveform Creator Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021
Legal Information
Overview
RFmx Waveform Creator provides a unified interface for creating and generating waveforms for multiple wireless standards. You can create unencrypted, unlocked IQ waveform files for playback on NI PXI RF instrumentation. Supported standards include 5G NR, LTE/LTE-Advanced, W-CDMA/HSPA+, GSM/EDGE+, TD-SCDMA, and more.
New Features
RFmx Waveform Creator 19.1 includes the following new features:
Support for V2X (sidelink) in LTE FDD modulation scheme as per 3GPP Release 14 specification
Added PSSCH and PSCCH channels
Added PSSCH DMRS and PSCCH DMRS signals
Support for retransmission
5G new radio (NR) modulation scheme
Support for 3GPP NR Release 15 Specification v15.6.0 (June 2019)
Support for auto increment cell id for carrier aggregation
Support for channel coding in PUSCH, PDSCH, and PDCCH
Support for predefined strings for PUSCH RB allocation as per 3GPP TS 38.521-1/2 specification
Added option to enable or disable phase continuity in LTE and NR multi-carrier
Support for PXIe-5841, PXIe-5831, and PXIe-5830
RFmx Waveform Creator 19.0 includes the following new features:
Support for PXIe-5830 and PXIe-5831
Support for Cat-M2 Uplink (Release 14) and Cat-NB2 Uplink in LTE modulation scheme
5G new radio (NR) modulation scheme
Added support for Uplink Pi/2 BPSK Spectral Shaping
Support for downlink test models as defined in 3GPP TS 38.141-1 and 3GPP TS 38.141-2 (Change requests R4-1905121, R4-1905122 endorsed in April 2019, to be updated in v15.2.0 when it releases in June 2019)
Support to resume generated waveforms in Download and Play window
RFmx Waveform Creator 3.0 includes the following new features:
Addition of 5G new radio (NR) modulation scheme
Support for launching the WLAN Generation SFP
Support for launching the Bluetooth Generation SFP
Support for PXIe-5820
Addition of crest factor reduction (CFR) in LTE, NR, and Multi-Carrier modulation schemes. Supported CFR types are Clipping and Peak Windowing.
Support for custom output sample rate in multi-carrier plugin.
GSM relative power per slot
Supported Hardware
The following hardware products are supported in all operating systems listed in the Supported Operating Systems section.
Vector Signal Generators
PXIe-5673
PXIe-5673E
Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Generators Help .
Vector Signal Transceivers
PXIe-5644
PXIe-5645
PXIe-5646
PXIe-5840
PXIe-5841
PXIe-5820
PXIe-5830
PXIe-5831
Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help .
System RequirementsRFmx Waveform Creator 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 Waveform Creator 19.1 supports the following 64-bit operating systems:
Windows 10/8.1 1 /7 SP1 2
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 for more information about how to install this security update.
Note In 2019, RFmx Waveform Creator dropped support for all 32-bit Windows operating systems. RFmx Waveform Creator will not install or run on an unsupported OS. Refer to RFmx Waveform Creator Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021 for information about future OS support.
Installation Instructions
NI installs RFmx Waveform Creator using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, RFmx Waveform Creator 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.
Executable
Select Start » All Programs » National Instruments» RFmx Waveform Creator to launch the RFmx Waveform Creator.
Accessing the Help
Documentation for RFmx Waveform Creator is located at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx Waveform Creator»RFmx Waveform Creator Documentation . The documentation set is composed of the following documents.
Document
Format
Description
RFmx Waveform Creator Help
HTML/Windows Help
Contains primary help content for RFmx Waveform Creator. This help file is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
An introduction to RFmx Waveform Creator
How to get started with application development
A complete reference for all RFmx Waveform Creator programming functions and VIs
RFmx Waveform Creator 19.1 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 Waveform Creator examples at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»RFmx Waveform Creator»RFmx Waveform Creator 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 items are the behavior changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 19.1 from RFmx Waveform Creator 19.0.
Following configurations require recreation of waveforms in 5G new radio (NR) modulation scheme
Carrier aggregation due to 3GPP NR specification updates to nominal spacing
Downlink test models due to 3GPP NR specification updates to definitions of downlink test models
ACP optimized filter bandwidth is updated to avoid corrupting edge sub-carriers
The following items are the behavior changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 19.0 from RFmx Waveform Creator 3.0.
5G new radio (NR) modulation scheme
Deprecated support for slot Offset control
Default value of downlink Channel Configuration Mode control has changed to Test Model from User defined .
Default value of BWP Number of RBs control has changed to -1 from maximum number of resource blocks.
Added SSB Active Blocks control and deprecated SSB Transmitted Pattern control under SS/PBCH Block configurations window.
Saving of waveforms in evaluation mode is not allowed in WLAN and Bluetooth
The following items are the behavior changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 3.0 from RFmx Waveform Creator 2.5.
Fractional resampling is performed in LTE and NR carrier aggregation so that the final sample rate is a multiple of 3.84 MHz.
CCDF graph calculates PAPR based on generated waveform excluding OFF power period.
UI controls on the Download & Play window are reset based on selected device.
Known Issues
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the RFmx Waveform Creator Known Issues for an up-to-date list of known issues.
Bug Fixes
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in RFmx Waveform Creator . This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of the RFmx Waveform Creator . If you have a bug ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.
The following items are changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 19.1 from RFmx Waveform Creator 19.0
ID
Fixed Issue
237107
Fixed a crash issue in graphics panel when Zoom In option was chosen before generating plot.
237143
Fixed a crash issue while saving idle waveform in GSM modulation scheme.
237073
Fixed an issue with file name containing German characters in Multi-Carrier plugin.
244064
Fixed an issue to enable Payload Length and Payload Length Mode fields when you set the Carrier Mode to Continuous in Bluetooth modulation scheme.
244072
Fixed an issue in Bluetooth waveform generation of LE-TP Ext and LE Enhanced packets where
CTE time field was set to 0 bits when you set Direction Finding Mode parameter to value other than Disabled .
CTE type field was incorrect when you set the Direction Finding Mode parameter to Angle of Departure and CTE slot duration to 2 us.
244074
Fixed an issue where filter delay was not accounted for the continuous mode of Bluetooth EDR packet generation.
217088
Fixed an issue where the waveform length was incorrectly computed for continuous mode of Bluetooth LE packet generation when direction finding mode was set to value other than Disabled .
237195
Fixed an issue of periodic spurs at specific frequencies in tones generation.
216576 and 218907
Fixed an issue with CFR bandwidth calculation in NR plugin and Multi-Carrier plugin.
The following items are changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 19.0 from RFmx Waveform Creator 3.0
ID
Fixed Issue
236984
Fixed an issue where the error message was getting cleared in Download and Play window when switching between windows
236966
Performance enhancements in CFR operations for waveforms of size lesser than 20M samples.
236903
Fixed an issue where the Graphics tab IQ FFT view was not scaling correctly when the bandwidth was increased.
236913
Fixed an issue with waveform precision from 14 bits to 16 bits.
The following items are changes in RFmx Waveform Creator 3.0 from RFmx Waveform Creator 2.5
ID
Fixed Issue
236754
Fixed the phase discontinuity issue on configuring GSM on first slot and EDGE on last slot.
236716
Fixed the issue where CCDF graph was reporting negative results for some configurations.
236718
Fixed the issue of not reporting burst start and stop locations for NB-IoT and eMTC FDD.
236732 and 236751
Fixed the issue of reporting incorrect burst PAPR for impaired bursty signal in Multi-Carrier and User plugins.
236710
Fixed the issue where IQ impairments per carrier set were incorrect, when multiple carrier sets are configured.
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 4.0, 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 Customize and Automate Installation of a Single Installer .
For more information about silent installations of NI products in a suite, such as NI Developer Suite, refer to Customize and Automate Installation of a Suited Installer .
To determine what version of NI Installers your product contains, refer to Determine Type and Version of My National Instruments 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 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 Waveform Creator Drops Support for Windows 7 (64-Bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2021
RFmx Waveform Creator 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 .
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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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 .