The case for UHF-band MU-MIMO

Abstract

While the UHF band exhibits superior propagation characteristics compared to other frequency bands used for broadband communications, limited spectral availability in time and space necessitates high spectral efficiency techniques such as Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). In this paper we design and implement the first open MU-MIMO Software-Defined Radio (SDR) platform that operates on an order of magnitude frequency range, from 300 MHz to 5.8 GHz. We perform a comprehensive set of over-the-air experiments to evaluate the potential of UHF-band MU-MIMO in comparison to 2.4 and 5.8 GHz WiFi bands encompassing a range of operating environments. We evaluate MU-MIMO performance in both outdoor, indoor, line-of-sight (LOS), and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, and demonstrate that while the temporal correlation of the measured UHF environment is increased, it does not come at the cost of increased spatial correlation as measured by the Demmel condition number, thus proving highly attractive for MU-MIMO. This evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of MU-MIMO transmission techniques in UHF bands for high spectral efficiency and low-overhead wireless access.