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/*! \page page_stream Device streaming
\tableofcontents
\section stream_intro Introduction to Streaming
The concept of streaming refers to the transportation of samples between
host and device. A stream is an object that facilitates streaming
between host application and device. An RX stream allows the user to
receive samples from the device. A TX stream allows the user to transmit
samples to the device.
\section stream_lle Link Layer Encapsulation
The VITA49 standard provides encapsulation for sample data across a link
layer. On all second generation hardware (and later), samples are
encapsulated into VRT IF data packets. These packets also provide sample
decoration such as stream time and burst flags. Sample decoration is
exposed to the user in the form of RX and TX metadata structs.
The length of an IF data packet can be limited by several factors:
- **MTU of the link layer:** network card, network switch
- **Buffering on the host:** frame size in a ring buffer
- **Buffering on the device:** size of BRAM FIFOs
\section stream_datatypes Data Types
There are two important data types to consider when streaming:
- The data type of the samples used on the host for processing
- The data type of the samples sent through the link-layer
\subsection stream_datatypes_cpu The host/CPU data type
The host data type refers to the format of samples used in the host for
baseband processing. Typically, the data type is complex baseband such
as normalized **complex-float32** or **complex-int16**.
\subsection stream_datatypes_otw The link-layer data type
The link-layer or "over-the-wire" data type refers to the format of the
samples sent through the link. Typically, this data type is **complex-int16**.
However, to increase throughput over the link-layer,
at the expense of precision, **complex-int8** may be used.
\subsection stream_datatypes_conv Conversion
The user may request arbitrary combinations of host and link data types;
however, not all combinations are supported. The user may register
custom data type formats and conversion routines. See
convert.hpp and \ref page_converters for further documentation.
*/
// vim:ft=doxygen:
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