An approach for real time prototyping of MIMO-OFDM systems

With multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transmission, impressive capacity or diversity gains can be achieved compared to single antenna systems. We have conceived and implemented a generic platform that enables real-time wireless MIMO transmission. The platform supports the integration and the evaluation of transmit and receive spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity processing techniques for MIMO-OFDM systems in a wireless environment. The platform is based on modular multi-FPGA and multi-board designs with support for high-speed serial connection links between the boards. This paper describes the platform integration of a 2-antenna base station using MIMO transmit processing including special front-end techniques for the exploitation of channel reciprocity in time division duplex (TDD) schemes.