RE Power 3D (Custom OFDM)
displays a three-dimensional representation of Resource Element Power for the reference component carrier with measurement symbols on the X axis, carriers on the Y axis, and Power (in dBm deciBels referenced to a milliWatt: dB relative to 1 milliwatt dissipated in the nominal input impedance of the analyzer) on the Z axis. While the RE Power 3D trace combines data displayed in other traces, it is better suited as a visualization tool. See the RE Power Heatmap trace for a more accurate two-dimensional view of RE Power that represents power as a color-coded heatmap.
Rotate, Zoom and Pan
You can rotate the 3D model, zoom in and out, and pan to view a particular element of the component carrier.
Rotate - Click and hold the left mouse button to rotate the 3D model.
Zoom - Use the thumb wheel to zoom in and out of the model.
Pan - Ctrl-click and hold to pan left, right, up or down. This is useful with the zoom feature to locate particular elements of the carrier.
Enabling Markers and Resetting the 3D view
Right-click anywhere within the RE Power 3D trace to display a menu of display options.
Auto Scale - Resets the scale of the 3D model to fit within the trace window without resetting the rotation.
Marker - Adds a marker to the trace and switches to Marker mode. In Marker mode, the cursor changes to cross-hairs, and clicking will relocate the marker to the cursor's position. Click the Pointer
tool in the Toolbar to exit Marker mode.
The RE Power 3D trace supports a single marker (Marker 1) that can be coupled with other traces using Markers > Couple Markers. In Marker mode, clicking on a point in the signal will display marker data at the top of the trace about the selected symbol (symbol number, carrier number, power, channel and power boost). Even though the Mkr: label at the top of the RE Power 3D trace isn't numbered, it is Marker 1 and will couple to Marker 1 in other traces.
The RE Power 3D trace does not support multi-layering and will fail to couple with other traces when mixed numerologies are used.
The RE Power 3D trace's marker data does not appear in the Markers window.
Snap to carrier-dBm - Snaps the 3D rotation to show carriers on the x axis and power (dBm) on the Y axis, and auto scales to fit within the trace.
Snap to sym-dBm - Snaps the 3D rotation to show symbols on the x axis and power (dBm) on the Y axis, and auto scales to fit within the trace.
Snap to sym-carrier - Snaps the 3D rotation to show carriers on the x axis and symbols on the Y axis, and auto scales to fit within the trace.
Orthographic camera - Displays the model in an orthographic (non-3D) perspective. The orthographic camera renders the planes of each axis using parallel lines, resulting in a "flat" representation of the data. The default view renders the data using 3D (vanishing point) perspective, providing the illusion of depth. In some cases, viewing the RE Power data in the orthographic view may be preferred over 3D view.
The RE Power 3D trace requires a video card and driver that support OpenGL 2.1 or higher for rendering of 3D trace data. See the VSA Installation Guide for a complete list of system requirements.
Trace Color coding Scheme
A multi-color coding scheme is used to make it easy to visually identify common symbols, subcarriers, and data results within various OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: OFDM employs multiple overlapping radio frequency carriers, each operating at a carefully chosen frequency that is Orthogonal to the others, to produce a transmission scheme that supports higher bit rates due to parallel channel operation. OFDM is an alternative tranmission scheme to DSSS and FHSS. Traces. This makes cross trace data comparisons and analysis easy to accomplish. Different colors are assigned to symbols representing a common subcarrier type including: Preamble, Pilot, Data, and Null subcarrier types. Some common color scheme Traces include: Error Vect vs. Carrier, Error Vect vs. Sym, IQ Meas, OFDM Data Burst Info, and Symbols trace data.
You can also customize and re-assign Trace colors schemes, see the Display Preferences Color tab (click tab and select a new color for the active Mod Type element).
See Also
