A portable MIMO testbed and selected channel measurements

A portable 44 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) testbed that is based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and which operates in the 902928 MHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band has been developed by the High Capacity Digital Communications (HCDC) Laboratory at the University of Alberta. We present a description of the HCDC testbed along with MIMO channel capacities that were derived from measurements taken with the HCDC testbed for three special locations: a narrow corridor, an athletics field that is surrounded by a metal fence, and a parkade. These locations are special because the channel capacities are different from what is expected for a typical indoor or outdoor channel. For two of the cases, a ray-tracing analysis has been performed and the simulated channel capacity values closely match the values calculated from the measured data. A ray-tracing analysis, however, requires accurate geometrical measurements and sophisticated modeling for each specific location. A MIMO testbed is ideal for quickly obtaining accurate channel capacity information.