
WSA5000 Functional Overview
Caution:
The configurations of the capture engine associated with :TRACe and :SWEep
commands are fully independent of each other. A :TRACe command uses the
configurations of the capture engine based on the root :INPut, :SENSe and :TRIGger
commands. It does not use the configurations based on the :SWEep command subset.
Trace Capture Control
The :TRACe capture control initiates the capture, storage and conditionally the sending of
IQ data through triggering when used. It supports both streaming and block mode
capture.
The :TRACe:BLOCk command initiates a block capture of continuous IQ data (available
to be "pulled" from the WSA5000 per command issued). Once it is issued, data will be
stored instantly (conditional on triggering), contiguously and reliably and are available to
be read. The maximum size of a block is limited by the memory device in the WSA.
The :TRACe:STReam command initiates the streaming of IQ data (which is "pushed"
from the WSA5000). Once it is issued, data packets will be sent instantly (conditional on
triggering) and continuously on best effort basis (in other words, data might not be
continuous from one packet to the next once the internal buffer is full).
The execution of the trace capture could be conditioned by the triggering. The triggering
may be enabled or disabled via the :TRIGger:TYPE command, thereby, supporting free-
run or triggered signal searches.
Table 5:
Trace Capture Control Commands
SCPI Command
Description
:TRACe
:BLOCk
:DATA?
Initiates the sending of the IQ data captured
:PACKets[?]
Sets the number of IQ data packets to be captured per block (a block =
:PACKets * SPP)
:SPPacket[?]
Defines the number of samples per VRT packet
:STReam
:STARt
Initiates the capture, storage and streaming of IQ data
:STOP
Stops streaming
) for further details.
Sweep Capture Control
The :SWEep capture control provides the ability to define and execute simple or complex
sweeps. A sweep setup consists of defining a list or multiple lists and executing one of
the defined lists, with each list consisting of one or more entries storing different capture
engine configurations. A list may be edited, deleted and/or executed using the
:SWEep:LIST command set.
ThinkRF WSA5000 Wireless Signal Analyzer Programmer's Guide
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