IEEE 802.11n MIMO Radio Design Verification Challenge and a Resulting ATE Program Implemented for MIMO Transmitter and Receiver Test

IEEE 802.11n has become a popular WLAN standard for the wireless networking industry since its official release in 2009. It adopts MIMO multiple spatial data streams architecture and requires significant efforts in RF radio design verification due to its multiple RF chains which demand multiple Vector Signal Generators for Receive test and multiple Vector Signal Analyzers for Transmit test in the instrument setup. This paper addresses our approach to compile an ATE program using reliable and proven tools and construct a radio test set to validate the program. LitePoint´s instruments IQnxn were selected for test set and Qualcomm Atheros´ AR9390 SoC chip was chosen for a 3×3 MIMO radio design. The ATE main control program was compiled using VC 6.0 (build wsock32.lib for DUT communication API) and VC++ 2005 (build IQmeasure.dll for IQnxn measurement API) as development platform. IQmeasure Library API provided by LitePoint contains all the measurement functions of 802.11a/b/g/n signals on instruments IQnxn and communication API. Windows socket wsock32.lib is the library and basic element that controls the DUT from PC via Ethernet. A couple of test cases were executed to test the functionality and effectiveness of the ATE program. These test cases are also addressed in the paragraphs.