Enable Software-Defined Radios for Real-Time MIMO Channel Sounding

This paper describes a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based implementation of a switched multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel sounder realization by use of software-defined radio (SDR) hardware (NI USRP-2954, X310 series with UBX 160 daughterboard). Essential basic functionalities are the synchronous switching of the antenna elements at both link ends and an integrated automatic gain control (AGC) at the receiver. To meet the high timing requirements in the switched MIMO setup, an FPGA-based AGC is introduced. The detector of the AGC is based on a sample-by-sample calculation of the average and maximum of the I/Q samples within a sliding window. The used SDR hardware allows a minimum AGC update interval of approx. 14 μs and a timing accuracy of the antenna switching of 5 ns. Our setup demonstrates the applicability of state-of-the-art SDRs as a sounding system for continuous acquisition of the time-variant, directional mobile radio channel.