I’ve been playing around with the LimeSDR-USB recently. I’m considering buying the soon to be released LimeNET Micro 2.0 as a 5G development platform but was hoping to have a few questions answered before I take the plunge.
The CrowdSupply campaign specifically mentions the Amarisoft 5G stack. Is there an estimate of potential channel bandwidth vs SISO/MIMO capabilities when using a Pi CM5? In particular, I’m interested in mid-band TDD builds. Is 2x2 5 MHz realistic? How about 2x2 10 MHz, or 1x1 20 MHz? Amarisoft claim to have achieved 2x2 100 MHz on an LX2160 board (16x core Cortex-A72 compared to the 4x core Cortex-A76), so maybe even 2x2 20 MHz?!
I spotted a fork of OAI for LimeSuiteNG integration. It had recent commits from ricardas. Is this just experimental for now, or is a OAI on the LimeNET Micro 2.0 something that is being actively developed? There seems to be some hacky support for srsRAN_4G via the Soapy plugin. I can’t find much in the way of srsRAN (5G), so assume that this isn’t in the pipeline for now.
In terms of LimeSuiteNG, is there likely to be a stable tagged release soon? I saw there was Issue #95, but that was from August 2024. I’m a little concerned about sinking development effort into anything on an unstable or untested API.
Right now, I’m just exploring potential. Longer term, I might be interested in integrating the XTRX into commercial products. Are there any example of the XTRX being integrated into commercial products? Or even just generic LMS7002M based ones? Are there any availability concerns around the XTRX? I’m trying to get an idea of if the LimeSDR ecosystem is really targetted at makers/hackers/researchers, and if productisation could end up being a slippery path as a result.
Finally, the LimeNET Micro 2.0 still on track for shipping at the end of January?
It’s not experimental, it is fully integrated and functional, tested on x86 platform. I personally haven’t tested OAI on Pi CM5, so can’t provide data regarding that.
LimeSuiteNG has integrations into:
Thanks @ricardas. Glad to hear that LimeSuiteNG is integrated into all the major 4G/5G stacks. Looking forward to seeing v1.0 of LimeSuiteNG when it’s released next month.
Any LimeNET Micro 2.0 developers here that can help with anticipated performance?
I realise I have asked this all at the worst time of year so will probably bump this thread in the new year!
we did not test with OAI on Arm based systems as Ricardas mentioned. LimeNET Micro 2.0 is capable of running 2x2 at 20MHz using Amarisoft stack in TDD (although slots are modified from default to have longer TX-RX windows), and 2x2 at 10MHz in FDD (just barely). I would assume OAI should be capable of 2x2 5MHz in TDD.
Thanks @Karolis. 2x2 20 MHz TDD is very usable so it’s good to know that’s achievable.
If LimeNET Micro 2.0 is still on track for release at the end of this month then I’ll put an order in. Otherwise I’ll Frankenstein something together with an XTRX, a LimeFEA mPCIe Full and some PCIe adapters to get myself going.
Well I noticed on Friday that they are now in stock at Mouser so I ordered one, which is now sitting on my desk
Beyond the Board Description, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of getting started material - just a sticky label with a usernmame and password printed on it in the box! I’m guessing that will come with the full release at the end of month, so I’ll refrain from bugging the devs in the meantime and just poke at what’s already installed.
Thanks @andrewback. I should have waited until I had at least logged in - the “develop” folder in the home directory had the BSP my Googling had failed to find (probably because I was just searching for “LimeNET Micro” based names rather than the specific “LimePSB RPCM” carrier).
For anyone interested, it looks to be a pretty vanilla Raspberry Pi OS with just the overlays from the BSP applied and LimeSuiteNG installed (commit ce49f22, from 15th June 2025). Should be easy enough to replicate on a CM5 for those looking to upgrade.
