II-NEW: A Beamspace Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Testbed for Centimeter-Wave and Millimeter-Wave Wireless

II-新：用于厘米波和毫米波无线的波束空间多输入多输出 (MIMO) 测试台

• 批准号: 1629713
• 负责人: Parameswaran Ramanathan
• 金额: $ 77.5万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-15 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1629713&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: II; NEW; Beamspace; Multiple; Input

This project will develop a state-of-the-art network testbed for facilitating research and development of emerging wireless technologies at centimeter-wave (cmW) and millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies, spanning 10GHz-300GHz. These technologies are the focus on intense current interest in both academia and industry as part of the emerging vision for 5G wireless standards and beyond for meeting the exploding data rate requirements imposed by proliferating mobile devices. It is widely recognized that current wireless networks operating below 6GHz simply do not have enough spectrum to sustain this growth and deliver the expected multi-Gigabit data rates. Multi-Gigabit speeds are possible in cmW/mmW due to the orders-of-magnitude larger available bandwidth compared to existing systems and the highly directional propagation through narrow beams. This project aims to exploit both features and will develop a versatile and powerful platform for integrated theoretical-experimental research on timely, critical and multi-faceted problems to advance the frontier of cmW/mmW technology. It will facilitate new collaborations with many researchers involved in cmW/mmW wireless, and also provide synergy with related advances in photonics, mixed signal circuits, and antennas. The testbed development will provide a unique teaching, learning and training opportunity for the students and faculty, spanning wireless communications, signal processing, networking, radio-frequency hardware and antenna design, FPGA (field programmable gate array) development, and system design, measurement, and troubleshooting. Five industrial and academic partners will contribute to the project. The PIs' plan to leverage the testbed for new curriculum development emphasizing interdisciplinary research and hands-on experience, and for outreach to middle and high schools. The testbed will also facilitate industrial-academic collaboration to accelerate the development of cmW/mmW technology and to enhance US leadership in 5G wireless and beyond. The multi-beam multiple input multiple output (MB-MIMO) wireless testbed network being developed consists of four nodes that will serve as access points (APs) and six nodes that will serve as mobile stations (MSs) or clients. The AP nodes will enable wideband high-dimensional MIMO functionality supported by a novel antenna array and a new FPGA-based digital backend. A key feature of the testbed is that the AP nodes are equipped with a state-of-the-art physical (PHY) layer based on a novel continuous aperture phased (CAP) MIMO architecture for hybrid analog-digital wideband multi-beamforming. The testbed builds on the successful development of a 10GHz CAP-MIMO prototype for proof-of-concept, and a new recently developed 28GHz prototype with advanced functionality. The CAP-MIMO architecture exploits the expected channel sparsity in beamspace for performance-complexity optimization and enables a practical approach to achieving the critical capability of electronic multi-beam steering and data multiplexing. The testbed will also enable multi-beam wideband MIMO channel measurements at spatial resolutions that are critical to the development of cmW/mmW systems but unavailable at this time. It will open new research avenues in several areas, including channel measurement and modeling, PHY design, interaction between PHY and higher layers, and new use cases, such as sensing.

该项目将开发一个最先进的网络测试台，以促进厘米波（cmW）和毫米波（mmW）频率（覆盖10GHz-300GHz）新兴无线技术的研究和开发。这些技术是当前学术界和工业界强烈关注的焦点，作为 5G 无线标准新兴愿景的一部分，旨在满足移动设备激增所带来的爆炸性数据速率要求。人们普遍认为，当前运行在 6GHz 以下的无线网络根本没有足够的频谱来维持这种增长并提供预期的多千兆位数据速率。由于与现有系统相比，可用带宽大几个数量级，并且通过窄波束进行高度定向传播，因此 cmW/mmW 级的数千兆位速度成为可能。该项目旨在利用这两个特征，并将开发一个多功能且强大的平台，对及时、关键和多方面的问题进行综合理论实验研究，以推进厘米波/毫米波技术的前沿。它将促进与参与 cmW/mmW 无线的许多研究人员的新合作，并与光子学、混合信号电路和天线的相关进展提供协同作用。测试平台开发将为学生和教师提供独特的教学、学习和培训机会，涵盖无线通信、信号处理、网络、射频硬件和天线设计、FPGA（现场可编程门阵列）开发以及系统设计、测量，以及故障排除。五个工业和学术合作伙伴将为该项目做出贡献。 PI 计划利用该测试平台进行新课程开发，强调跨学科研究和实践经验，并将其推广到初中和高中。该测试平台还将促进产学合作，加速 cmW/mmW 技术的开发，并增强美国在 5G 无线及其他领域的领导地位。 正在开发的多波束多输入多输出（MB-MIMO）无线测试床网络由四个用作接入点（AP）的节点和六个用作移动站（MS）或客户端的节点组成。 AP 节点将实现由新型天线阵列和基于 FPGA 的新型数字后端支持的宽带高维 MIMO 功能。该测试台的一个主要特点是，AP 节点配备了最先进的物理 (PHY) 层，该层基于新型连续孔径定相 (CAP) MIMO 架构，用于混合模拟数字宽带多波束成形。该测试平台建立在成功开发用于概念验证的 10GHz CAP-MIMO 原型以及最近开发的具有高级功能的新 28GHz 原型的基础上。 CAP-MIMO 架构利用波束空间中预期的信道稀疏性来优化性能复杂性，并提供一种实用的方法来实现电子多波束控制和数据复用的关键功能。该测试台还将实现空间分辨率下的多波束宽带 MIMO 信道测量，这对于 cmW/mmW 系统的开发至关重要，但目前尚不可用。它将在多个领域开辟新的研究途径，包括信道测量和建模、PHY 设计、PHY 与更高层之间的交互以及传感等新用例。