Experimental Verification of a Plane-Wave Field Synthesis Technique for MIMO OTA Antenna Testing

Abstract

This study evaluates the feasibility of plane-wave field synthesis (PWS) technique for multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) over-the-air (OTA) test facility, where a reference channel model is implemented. The test facility is based on a fading emulator and an anechoic chamber, equipped with multiple field emulating probes. The test facility emulates a radio channel condition using the PWS technique, based on the spherical wave theory. A simulation tool implementing the MIMO OTA field synthesis based on the PWS technique, named WIN-OTA, is established where the WINNER II is chosen as the reference channel model. The simulation results show that the PWS technique reproduces the reference channels accurately in terms of envelope distribution, spatial and temporal correlation, and channel capacity. The WIN-OTA implementation was verified by comparing the emulated fields and the throughput (TP) from the simulations with measurements for a practical MIMO OTA test facility. The results support the feasibility and accuracy of the field synthesis technique and the WIN-OTA implementation in MIMO OTA antenna testing.Index Terms-MIMO, MIMO OTA testing, plane wave, spherical wave expansion. . His current research interests are in the field of millimeter-wave CMOS circuits for integrated radio frontends.

On Radiated Performance Evaluation of Massive MIMO Devices in Multiprobe Anechoic Chamber OTA Setups

“…Therefore, to ensure that the DUT can not distinguish the target and emulated spatial channel, we need more active probes to sample the PAS for DUTs with larger antenna aperture. It was concluded in [29] that using the PFS technique would yield similar estimates of the number of required probes as in the PWS technique.…”

Phased Antenna Array Implementation with USRP

“…The aim is to include it as a part of a larger test environment with MIMO-OTA [13] channel emulation. MIMO-OTA can be used to create different channel environments in the anechoic chamber.…”

MIMO Fading Emulator Development with FPGA and Its Application to Performance Evaluation of Mobile Radio Systems

“…In the RC system, a chamber with metallic walls that effectively reflect radio waves is used to generate a rich multipath propagation environment [22][23][24]. In FE systems, a number of virtual scattering probe antennas encircle DUTs to generate a fading environment [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][25][26][27][28][29]. FE systems can provide flexible control of propagation parameters and various propagation environments, but system construction is complex and costly.…”

“…Of these MIMO-OTA measurement systems, one type is a field emulation system, which is used to produce a multipath fading environment around the DUT by surrounding the terminal with multiple probe antennas [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Conventional OTA measurement systems, as typified in [5], have the benefit of generating an environment based on mature technologies used in commercially available fading simulators.…”