In this paper a description is given of the SFXC software correlator, developed and maintained at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE). The software is designed to run on generic Linux-based computing clusters. The correlation algorithm is explained in detail, as are some of the novel modes that software correlation has enabled, such as wide-field VLBI imaging through the use of multiple phase centres and pulsar gating and binning. This is followed by an overview of the software architecture. Finally, the performance of the correlator as a function of number of CPU cores, telescopes and spectral channels is shown.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1502.00467,
title = {The SFXC software correlator for Very Long Baseline Interferometry: Algorithms and Implementation},
author = {A. Keimpema and M. M. Kettenis and S. V. Pogrebenko and R. M. Campbell and G. Cimó and D. A. Duev and B. Eldering and N. Kruithof and H. J. van Langevelde and D. Marchal and G. Molera Calvés and H. Ozdemir and Z. Paragi and Y. Pidopryhora and A. Szomoru and J. Yang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.00467},
year = {2015}
}