Getting Started

The guides below describe the required setup for using the USRP E320 with the Mango 802.11 MAC/PHY Design.

The Initial Setup process is required once per E320 node. After this the Design Iteration processes enable rapid iteration on the 802.11 design.

Initial Setup

The process below describes how to setup a new USRP E320 node for use with the Mango 802.11 MAC/PHY Design.

  1. Gather the required hardware, software, and accessories - see Hardware Setup for details
  • E320 node with full enclosure
  • microSD card and reader
  • USB flash drive
  • Micro USB cable
  • RF accessories for your application
  • Terminal emulator, such as PuTTY
  1. Expand the Mango 802.11 design archive for the USRP E320
  2. Format a microSD card as FAT32
  3. Copy boot files to the microSD card (see Boot Flow for details on these files):
  • BOOT.bin
  • ec-firmware-no-watchdog.bin
  • uEnv.txt
  1. Format a USB flash drive as FAT32
  2. Copy boot files to the USB flash drive:
  • Copy mango_wlan_e320_dualmb_ap_dcf.bit and rename it wlan.bit on the USB flash drive
  • Copy wlan_arm0_bootloop.elf and rename it arm0.elf on the USB flash drive
  1. Swap the E320 factory microSD card for the card with 802.11 boot files - see Hardware Setup for details
  2. Connect the micro USB cable and open a UART terminal on your PC - see UART Setup for details
  3. Connect the E320 Ethernet port to a local network with a DHCP server, router, and internet access
  4. Insert the USB flash drive to the E320 USB port
  5. Connect the RF accessories (such as antennas) to the front panel SMA jacks - by default the 802.11 design uses only the RF A TX/RX port
  6. Connect the E320 power supply
  7. Press the power button on the front panel to power up the node and boot the 802.11 design
  8. Watch for boot messages on the UART terminal

Design Iteration

After the Initial Setup process the USRP E320 node can be used like a standard Xilinx FPGA development board. The Mango 802.11 FPGA design can be updated by replacing boot files on the USB flash drive, or the Zynq PS/PL can be configured directly from the Xilinx tools via USB/JTAG.

USB Flash Drive

The USB flash drive contains the PL bitstream (wlan.bit) and application for the PS ARM core #0 (arm0.elf).

When using the Dual-MicroBlaze 802.11 design, the entire design is contained in the PL bitstream. Update the 802.11 design by replacing wlan.bit on the flash drive. As the ARM cores are not used, the arm0.elf application on the USB drive should be a copy of wlan_arm0_bootloop.elf from the design archive.

When using the High-ARM 802.11 design, the PL bitstream contains one MicroBlaze core for the lower MAC, while the upper MAC runs in the PS ARM core #0. In this case the arm0.elf on the USB drive must be one of the high MAC applications (AP, STA, IBSS) copied from the SDK workspace.

USB/JTAG from Xilinx SDK

After completing the Initial Setup process above the USRP E320 operates just like a standard Xilinx FPGA development board. The E320 integrates a Digilent USB/JTAG controller, connected to an internal USB hub and accessible via the micro USB port on the back panel (same USB port as UARTs).

The Xilinx Vivado and SDK tools support the Digilent USB/JTAG interface natively. The Xilinx SDK can use the JTAG connection to configure the PL, load software applications in the MicroBlaze and ARM CPUs, and debug those applications interactively. More details on using the SDK are in the SDK Workspace page.