A Real Time UWB MIMO System With Programmable Transmit Waveforms: Architecture, Algorithms and Demonstrations

Research on ultra-wideband (UWB) systems with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration has gained a great deal of attention recently. In this article we report a real time experimental UWB MIMO system testbed developed at Tennessee Technological University. We present the architecture, unique capabilities, algorithms development, experimental demonstrations, secure communications scheme with measurement based performances evaluation, and potential applications of the system testbed. Two demonstration cases are used to validate the system. In the first demo case we experimentally investigate UWB MIMO enhanced spatial-temporal focusing property in a harsh RF environment with time reversal waveform precoding technique to take advantage of multipath propagation. In the second demo case UWB MIMO spatial division multiple access (SDMA) in a typical office environment is experimentally verified. In particular, as a physical layer security enhancement, a unique location based security-enhanced communications concept is tested with normal office-area propagation channels, and it is proved to be feasible at certain data rates. First-hand experimental results are collected to support UWB MIMO research.