Novel Scalable MIMO Channel Sounding Technique and Measurement Accuracy Evaluation With Transceiver Impairments

• Published in: IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement Vol. 61; no. 12; pp. 3185 - 3197
• Main Authors: Minseok Kim, Takada, J., Konishi, Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-12-2012; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Channel sounding; Channels; Computer simulation; directional channel; Frequency division multiplexing; fully parallel architecture; Guidelines; Impairment; Instrumentation; Mean square errors; MIMO; multi-link MIMO channel; multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO); Parallel architectures; Product introduction; Scalability; Sounding; Studies; Transceivers
• ISSN: 0018-9456; 1557-9662
• DOI: 10.1109/TIM.2012.2205510

This paper presents a novel multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel sounding technique with a fully parallel transceiver architecture that employs a layered scheme of frequency and space-time division multiplexing. It offers inherent scalability of the number of antennas by a combination of multiple transceiver units and flexibility for both directional MIMO channel and multi-link MIMO channel measurements. This paper describes the principle of the channel sounding technique and formulates the signal processing that makes possible various scalable unit configurations. The influence of the transceiver imperfections such as I/Q imbalance (IQI) and phase noise (PN) on the measurement accuracy is discussed, and a multitone allocation scheme that is robust against IQI is also introduced. Using computer simulations, the measurement accuracy in the presence of IQI and PN is evaluated using the normalized mean square error, which provides a design guideline for the realization of hardware.