Analysis, design, implementation and deployment of wireless, MIMO OFDM communication systems

This dissertation describes the design, the implementation and the deployment of radio transceivers (2.44GHz/5.25GHz) for MIMO-OFDM Communication Systems which have been developed over the course of the Author's studies at UCLA in the WISR group. The main focus lays on the latest 2.44GHz/5.245GHz dual band testbed (FOM testbed) but results from previous testbeds will be presented as well. The FOM testbed is built with off-the-shelf components on five PCBs; two PCBs at the transmitter and receiver side for the baseband and RF implementation and one additional PCB for controlling purposes. The design incorporates a digital IF architecture to mitigate I/Q mismatch and a DDFS for fast channel hopping. The FOM testbed has interfaces to a real and non-real time platform. It can be configured with any number of transmit and receive antennas with a maximum of 8 antennas on each side. Possible configurations range from a simple 1x1 SISO to a complex 8x8 MIMO system. Besides the transceiver design, a graphical user interface and a sotware based simulator completes the testbed.;After reviewing basic architectures for RF transmitters and RF receivers, the actual implementation is presented. Circuit details and derivations are shown and simulation results are presented. The design is then analyzed thoroughly and key parameters of the transceiver are derived and explained. Most of the key parameters are measured on the actual FOM testbed and compared to theory. Extensive simulation results of hardware impairments, such as phase noise, I/Q mismatch, power amplifier nonlinearity and switched power supply noise, are presented and analyzed on the actual FOM testbed.;In a next step, the testbeds are calibrated by comparing their performance with theory. The calibration procedure sets a baseline for the wireless measurement campaign. In the wireless measurement campaign, the testbeds have been deployed in different setups in indoor an outdoor environments. The results of these wireless measurement campaigns are presented and analyzed.