Design and Implementation of a DSP-Based MIMO System Prototype for Real-Time Demonstration and Indoor Channel Measurements

The design and implementation of the Virginia Tech Space-Time Advanced Radio (VT-STAR), a multiple antenna element space-time (ST) processing prototype testbed, is presented. The testbed is a research tool for comparing practical and theoretical performance metrics (e.g., throughput, link reliability) in different wireless channel conditions. The prototype builds around software-defined radio (SDR) concepts on a DSP platform and provides the flexibility to implement various forms of ST techniques. Different components of the system are described in detail, including the software implementation, I/O schemes with custom hardware, and data transfer mechanisms between the DSP and the host PC. Two different example realizations are presented, a real-time demonstration and an offline measurement tool. Finally, some representative measurement results obtained in indoor environments are presented. These results show VT-STAR to be a promising tool for performing MIMO experiments and generating channel measurements that can complement simulation studies in this area.