Can I use srsUE to receive the signal from real LTE base station? I want to conduct some experiments for estimating CSI for LTE downlink.

[Rango-T10000]

Issue Description

According to your Documents, as my understanding,

1. I need to use a Linux PC installed srsUE and a RF_front(e.g. USRP) to build a LTE signal transceiver (User Terminal like a mobile phone).
2. I need to use a Linux PC installed srsENB and srsEPC and a RF_front(e.g. USRP) to build a LTE signal transceiver (a simulated base station).
3. Then the LTE signal receiver can receive signal from the LTE signal transmitter(a simulated base station).

Because I want to conduct some experiments for estimating CSI for LTE downlink. I need to receive and analysize the signal from the real LTE basestations around my outside location. My question is that can I use srsUE to receive the signal from real LTE base station?

[RabihND]

Access to low-level physical layer information (such as raw IQ data or full CSI) in srsUE would require modifications or custom logging to extract those metrics.

However, in OAI (OpenAirInterface), there is already functionality to estimate the channel in both downlink and uplink. You can use the T_tracer tool or implement your own logging approach to access IQ data; Channel Frequency Response (CFR) and Channel Impulse Response (CIR). OAI is a large project, so it requires a good understanding of how to read 3GPP specifications to locate and use the relevant functions.

There’s a paper from the OAI team that discusses using SRS (UL) and PRS (DL) and explains how to obtain CFR and CIR using the T_tracer tool. You can read more about it here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.20463.