GNU Radio provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios. It can be used with readily-available low-cost external RF hardware to create software-defined radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. It is widely used in hobbyist, academic and commercial environments to support both wireless communications research and real-world radio systems.

GNU Radio applications are primarily written using the Python programming language, while the supplied performance-critical signal processing path is implemented in C++ using processor floating-point extensions, where available. Thus, the developer is able to implement real-time, high-throughput radio systems in a simple-to-use, rapid-application-development environment.

While not primarily a simulation tool, GNU Radio does support development of signal processing algorithms using pre-recorded or generated data, avoiding the need for actual RF hardware.

This package contains the gnuradio-companion, a graphical tool for creating signal flow graphs and generating flow-graph source code. Also included are a variety of tools and utility programs.