From architecture to implementation of a wireless, multiple antenna testbed

This paper describes the design and development of a wireless, multiple antenna testbed. The discussed wireless testbed, built with off-the-shelf components, is fully calibrated and has been used in many field trials. The author addresses the complete design flow from the frequency plan and the decision of the architecture to the actual implementation on multiple PCBs. The decisions are often driven by the availability of components on the market. A big challenge in multiple antenna systems is the distribution of the controlling and data signals, which significantly increases the complexity compared to single antenna systems. Most of the ideas discussed are kept very general and can be applied to any kind of wireless testbed.