Which USB Bandwith does a USB SDR need?

• Which USB Bandwith does a USB SDR need?
  Posted by Lord of nothing on 05 Jul, 2018 13:11
• Hi
  Sry I dont know it. So which Bandwidth does a (Generic) USB SDR Dongle need? 
  When I use an Software who connects directly to the Dongle (like ADSB, ACARSdeco2) does the need more or less USB Bandwidth then when I use SDR# to "see" the Spectrum?
• #1 Reply
  Posted by PA0PBZ on 05 Jul, 2018 14:26
• Dongle bandwidth you want as big as possible, so you can see a wide band in the spectrum.
  Demodulator bandwidth is done in the PC while processing, for SSB ideal is about 2.5KHz.
  
  [Edit]
  
  Oh wait… USB is not a modulation type in this case So look at sample frequency and you will have your answer (hint: it's not that much for a typical dongle)
  
• #2 Reply
  Posted by Lord of nothing on 05 Jul, 2018 14:48
• I sayed in the other Tread I will buy an USB -> Fiber -> USB Adapter and need to know how much oft them I need. I use ~6 Dongle at the moment. My small Pc run with 100% CPU Load and my Business Server with 6% or so.  So the best think is buy an USB to Fiber adapter and Install an Virtual Win7 and run the Processing on my Server who run 24/7 in quite idle and save Power. 
  
  For that I need to calculate how much of that Adapter I have to buy.
• #3 Reply
  Posted by PA0PBZ on 05 Jul, 2018 15:48
• The maximum sample rate of an RTL-SDR dongle is 2.5MS/s so that is 2.5MB. USB 2.0 specs say 60MB/s but even if you take half of that it's still theoretically enough for 10+ dongles.
  
• #4 Reply
  Posted by Lord of nothing on 05 Jul, 2018 15:59
•   perfect. That mean with an "cheap" USB 2.0 only -> http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/fiber/usb-2-0-ranger-2324/ the Dongle works?
  How about the HackRF with USB 3.0 and the 3.0 Converter: http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/fiber/usb-3-0-spectra-3022/
  
  Do you (or anyone else) see an Problem with Latency and other stuff?
• #5 Reply
  Posted by PA0PBZ on 05 Jul, 2018 17:04
• Quote from: Lord of nothing on 05 Jul, 2018 15:59

  perfect. That mean with an "cheap" USB 2.0 only -> http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/fiber/usb-2-0-ranger-2324/ the Dongle works?
  

  
  Yes, I would be surprised if it would not support 6 dongles easily. (I think that is your setup?)
  
  

  Quote

  How about the HackRF with USB 3.0 and the 3.0 Converter: http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/fiber/usb-3-0-spectra-3022/
  
  Do you (or anyone else) see an Problem with Latency and other stuff?
  

  
  HackRF sample speed is upto 20Msps so about 10 times the RTL-SDR dongle. Theoretical speed of USB 3.0 is 640MBps so a handful of HackRF devices should not be a problem.
  
  Don't worry about latency, most latency comes from the processing (+demodulation) in the PC anyway.
• #6 Reply
  Posted by Lord of nothing on 05 Jul, 2018 22:32
• perfect I will wait until the company replay to my E-Mail. 
• #7 Reply
  Posted by Wirehead on 06 Jul, 2018 05:30
• Quote from: PA0PBZ on 05 Jul, 2018 15:48

  The maximum sample rate of an RTL-SDR dongle is 2.5MS/s so that is 2.5MB. USB 2.0 specs say 60MB/s but even if you take half of that it's still theoretically enough for 10+ dongles.
  

  
  Shouldn't that be doubled? 2 ADC's for I/Q stream. So something like 40Mbps
• #8 Reply
  Posted by PA0PBZ on 06 Jul, 2018 09:06
• Quote from: Wirehead on 06 Jul, 2018 05:30

  Quote from: PA0PBZ on 05 Jul, 2018 15:48

  The maximum sample rate of an RTL-SDR dongle is 2.5MS/s so that is 2.5MB. USB 2.0 specs say 60MB/s but even if you take half of that it's still theoretically enough for 10+ dongles.
  

  
  Shouldn't that be doubled? 2 ADC's for I/Q stream. So something like 40Mbps
  

  
  You are quoting what I said about the RTL-SDR but then mentioning the sample rate of the HackRF? What I could find about the last is that they mention 20MSps but it does not say if this is total or for I and Q each. If it is each then it can be 40MBps (not Mbps!), I agree. On the other hand they also say transfer rate 20MSps so... ?
  Anyway, the USB speed will still be enough.
  
  
  [Edit]
  
  Did a bit more searching and found the following here: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/review-airspy-vs-sdrplay-rsp-vs-hackrf/
  
  We monitored the USB usage using Windows performance monitor and discovered that the Airspy (with bit packing at 10 MHz) used 30,000,000 bytes per second, the RSP (at 8 MHz) 25,000,000 bytes per second and the HackRF (at 20 MHz) 40,000,000 bytes per second.
  
  So yes you are right, it is 40MBps.