3. Supported Hardware#

In this page, we briefly compare the capabilities of the PicoScenes-supported CSI hardware. The following Wi-Fi NIC models are available in our PicoScenes Taobao Shop ^_^.

CSI-extractable hardware supported by PicoScenes#

Hardware Model

AX210/AX200/AX211

USRP-based SDR (X310 as example)

HackRF One

QCA9300

IWL5300

Type

Wi-Fi NIC

SDR via USB3.0 or 10GbE

SDR via USB2.0

Wi-Fi NIC

Wi-Fi NIC

Form Factor

M.2 2230, M.2 2230 w/ CNVi (AX211)

External USRP device

External SDR device

Mini PCI-E 1x

Mini PCI-E 1x

Supported Protocols for CSI measurement

802.11a/g/n/ac/ax

802.11a/g/n/ac/ax

802.11a/g/n/ac/ax

802.11n

802.11n

Support Manual Rx Gain

No

YES

YES

YES

No

Available Carrier Frequency Range (MHz)

AX200: 2.4/5 GHz Bands, 470 MHz in total; AX210: 2.4/5/6 GHz bands, [5955, 7115] MHz continuous spectrum!

Arbitrary tunable in [10, 6000] MHz

Arbitrary tunable in [10, 7250] MHz

Arbitrary tunable in [2.2-2.9] and [4.4-6.1] GHz

2.4/5 GHz Bands, 470 MHz in total

Available Bandwidths (MHz)

20/40/80/160

Arbitrary tunable in [1, 200]

Arbitrary tunable in [1, 20]

Arbitrary tunable in [2.5, 80]

20/40

Maximal MIMO Streams

2

4

1

3

3

Maximal CSI dimension

1992x2x2

1992x4x4

242x1x1

114x3x3

30x3x3

Number of CSI per packet

1

Multiple: CSI from L-LTF and HT/VHT/HE-LTF, and the Pilot CSI per Data symbol

Multiple: CSI from L-LTF and HT/VHT/HE-LTF, and the Pilot CSI per Data symbol

2, by HT-rate Extra Spatial Sounding (ESS)

2, by HT-rate Extra Spatial Sounding (ESS)

CSI Measurement for the Overheard Frames in Monitor Mode

YES

YES

YES

No, only for 11n sounding frames

No, only for the special 12:34:56 address

Arbitrary Packet Injection

Yes, all-format (a/g/n/ac/ax), all-bandwidth (20/40/80/160 MHz), all-coding (LDPC/BCC) and all-band (2.4/5/6 GHz)

Yes, all-format (a/g/n/ac/ax), all-bandwidth (20/40/80/160 MHz), all-coding(LDPC/BCC), arbitrary frequency (10-6000 MHz)

Yes, all-format (a/g/n/ac/ax), all-coding(LDPC/BCC), arbitrary frequency (10-7250 MHz), 20 MHz bandwidth

Yes, a/g/n

Yes, a/g/n