A MIMO hardware demonstrator: application of space-time block codes

Abstract

In this paper we present a multiple antenna system for industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM)-band transmission (MASI). The hardware demonstrator was developed and realized at our institute. It enables multiple input multiple output (MIMO)-communication applications and is capable to transmit arbitrary signals using 8 transmit and 8 receive antennas in parallel. It operates in the 2.4 GHz ISMband. The hardware concept is introduced and some design specifications are discussed. As an application example, we will focus on one specific class of transmit diversity schemes: orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC). Channel and carrier offset estimation are essential tasks in coherent receivers. However, they are also some kind of error sources due to the imperfectness of the employed algorithm. We will show by simulation and measurement results, that OSTBC based systems are more sensitive to channel estimation errors and/or carrier frequency offsets than conventional single transmit antenna systems. The consequence is that the diversity gain decreases significantly in the case of estimation errors.

Wideband MIMO Measurement Systems for Antenna and Channel Evaluation

“…However, this testbed does not include real-time performance evaluation or feedback analysis. Several MIMO testbeds working in offline basis have been presented in (Seeger et al, 2003), (Aschbacher et al, 2004), (Pietsch et al, 2005), (van Zelst et al, 2004).…”

Contribution to the characterization and evaluation of multiple antenna systems for communications: prototyping, propagation and antenna perspective

“…Nevertheless, this testbed does not include real-time performance evaluation or feedback analysis. Several other testbeds have been presented [174]- [177], following the same idea of pre-and post-processing in an offline basis, with different levels of complexity in the communication between PC and testbed, as well as different features (carrier frequency, bandwidth, etc.). The MIMO testbed presented in this thesis (Chapter 4) may be considered into this type of prototypes.…”