2024/03/18 by Michiel Sandra, Christian Nelson, Sandra, Michiel +9 · 3 citations
Engineering · #Advanced MIMO Systems Optimization #Antenna Design and Analysis #Antenna Design and Optimization #FOS: Electrical engineering #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2403.11856
openalex publication_date 2024/03/18 · openalex created_date 2024/03/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Channel sounding is a vital step in understanding wireless channels for the design and deployment of wireless communication systems. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a coherent distributed massive MIMO channel sounder operating at 5-6 GHz with a bandwidth of 400 MHz based on the NI USRP X410. Through the integration of transceiver chains and RF switches, the design facilitates the use of a larger number of antennas without significant compromise in dynamic capability. Our current implementation is capable of measuring thousands of antenna combinations within tens of milliseconds. Every radio frequency switch is seamlessly integrated with a 16-element antenna array, making the antennas more practical to be transported and flexibly distributed. In addition, the channel sounder features real-time processing to reduce the data stream to the host computer and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The design and implementation are verified through two measurements in an indoor laboratory environment. The first measurement entails a single-antenna robot as transmitter and 128 distributed receiving antennas. The second measurement demonstrates a passive sensing scenario with a walking person. We evaluate the results of both measurements using the super-resolution algorithm SAGE. The results demonstrate the great potential of the presented sounding system for providing high-quality radio channel measurements, contributing to high-resolution channel estimation, characterization, and active and passive sensing in realistic and dynamic scenarios.