RFmx Licensing Guide

Updated Feb 18, 2024

Reported In

Hardware

  • PXI Vector Signal Analyzer
  • PXI Vector Signal Transceiver
  • PXI Vector Signal Generator

Software

  • RFmx

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

I currently have some of National Instruments Radio Frequency (RF) devices and want to know what is included in the RFmx driver and what requires a separate license?

Solution

RFmx provides signal generation and analysis for general-purpose, connectivity, cellular, and aerospace/defense test applications. The installation of the driver can include any of the software shown below. Everything within this list will require a license except RFmx Waveform Creator, RFmx Demod, and RFmx SpecAn.
  
  • RFmx SpecAn.
  • RFmx WLAN.
  • RFmx for Bluetooth® Test.
  • RFmx NR.
  • RFmx LTE.
  • RFmx WCDMA.
  • RFmx TD-SCDMA.
  • RFmx EV-DO.
  • RFmx CDMA2k.
  • RFmx GSM.
  • RFmx Pulse.
  • RFmx Analysis Only.
  • RFmx Waveform Creator ¹.
  • RFmx Demod².
  • RFmx Noise Figure³.
  • RFmx Phase Noise³.
  • RFmx Power Amplifier³.

Notes:
  • ¹: Without any separate licenses, the RFmx Waveform Creator will only allow the creation of basic waveforms, such as AM and FM. In order to get access to the RF Cellular / Connectivity Standards which include more advanced features (WLAN, Bluetooth, LTE, etc.), you will need to purchase its respective license. 
  • ²: Since RFmx 20.7, RFmx Demod is available as RFmx Digital Modulation and RFmx Analog Modulation and requires a separate license for analog and digital modulation use cases.
  • ³: RFmx Noise Figure and RFmx Phase Noise require licenses despite they exist under RFmx SpecAn. Similarly, since RFmx 20.7, RFmx Power Amplifier (for DPD, AMPM, Programmatic CFR, PxdB Compression measurements​) requires a separate license too.