A real time 4×4 MIMO-OFDM SDR for wireless networking research

A real time, 2 Mbps to 150 Mbps portable SDR unit with MIMO and sensing capability which exposes all the PHY parameters to the higher layers will help advance experimental cognitive radio (CR), and wireless networking research. The current SDR implements a slight variant of the 802.11n draft specification, with the entire baseband implemented on a single Xilinx Virtex II 8000 device using commercial boards from Nallatech. A fully self contained PHY solution, this SDR is capable of over 300 unique modes of operation all under direct control of the MAC, and features a robust MAC API through which all PHY parameters can be controlled on a per-packet basis. The same API will allow the PHY to communicate channel state information, SNR, and RSSI measurements back to the MAC. In this paper we provide an overview of the SDR and its development.