OFDM-UWB MIMO transceiver implementation in realistic fading channels

This paper proposes the implementation of an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver employing a novel design of Wave-Radio Interferometer (WRI) circuit as a direct down-converter. In order to investigate the performance of the system in a realistic environment, the transceiver is simulated and tested in laboratory using an UWB fading channel defined by the IEEE802.15.3a standard set for high-rate wireless-personal area networks (WPANs). According to these standard specifications, a MATLAB code has been used to generate the channel model for simulations. The same code representing the channel impulse response has been imported to a radio channel emulator to imitate the wireless channel behavior for the laboratory measurements. For the proposed transceiver operating in the frequency range (3.1–4.1GHz), single-input multiple-output (SIMO) and MIMO configurations have been considered. A comparative study between standard channel models (CM) 1 and 4 is presented for each scenario. The results demonstrate a significant performance enhancement when an extra branch is used at the receiver of the SIMO, MIMO systems. This is due to the advantage of added diversity obtained in multiple-output systems.