# Frequency components much less prominent at the receiver for multiple tones

I am trying to transmit a multi-tone signal from one USRP (N210) to another and have written an out of tree block to generate the multi tone signals using an ifft. The two USRPs are connected directly via a cable and a $50\ \Omega, 20\textrm{ dB}$-attenuator.

I am finding that the signal is received clearly for 1 and 2 tones but not for 3+ tones. I'm not sure what I can do digitally to make the frequency components are lot more distinct. The received signal is amplified by $10\textrm{ dB}$ and passed through a LPF and I've attached some FFT plots showing the results.

I don't have enough reputation to show the transmitted signals but they are just direct spikes evenly distributed through the bandwidth and very distinct.

The received signals at the USRP are complex and so the FFT plots shown are only the real components.

Flow graph

Relevant graphs for a series of different tones

• Single tone

Transmit:

• Two tones

Transmit:

• Three tones

Transmit:

The number sweep block is an out of tree module that produces the frequency array that is passed into the FFT block.

The two USRPs are connected via a MIMO cable to ensure synchronisation of their clocks.

• that could be due to the spectral characteristics of the signals. Are you sending pure tones or pulse modulated tones? – vaz Jul 28 '16 at 15:18
• From what I know of how the USRP works, I assume the transmitted wave will be pulse modulated (I'm not 100% sure). Its worth noting that I am using an oversampling of 5 (1MHz) – iyop45 Jul 28 '16 at 15:34
• How many tones are you transmitting, over what bandwidth? What is the duration of each tone? – MBaz Jul 28 '16 at 15:58
• why is your spectrum single sided? The USRP gives you complex baseband, so your spectrum should basically span $[-\frac{f_s}2;\frac{f_s}2]$ No, the USRP doesn't do any baseband modulation itself, it just mixes up the baseband signal you supply it with to the carrier frequency you specify. Which is that? Which model is your USRP? If applicable: which daughterboard? can you include the flow graph? This is all very much stumbling in the dark. – Marcus Müller Jul 28 '16 at 17:28
• @MarcusMüller I'm using the USRP N210 with a carrier frequency of 2.8GHz. Yes, the plots do go into the negative frequencies and the fft plots in the question are the real parts of the received complex signal. I've edited the question to include the relevant information that I missed out. I've tried experimenting with different oversampling rates and windows for the fft block and LPF. – iyop45 Jul 29 '16 at 8:52

The problem was from the fact that I was using a rectangular window for the ifft at the transmitter.

Using any other window at the ifft ensures there are no harmonics outside the 200kHz (which are interrupting the signal).

Here is an example of the signal using the rectangular window

And using a hamming window

Four tones