Hardware-in-the-loop demonstration of a 60GHz line-of-sight 2×2 MIMO link

The dawn of 5G requires significantly higher data rates, not only for the Radio Access Technology (RAT), but also for the transport network. Line-of-Sight MIMO links based on mmWave radios promise reaching ultra-high throughput with reasonably small antennas. mmWave links with optimally arranged antennas are one viable concept for spatial multiplexing, capable of potentially achieving Gb/s data rates. In the context of mmWave MIMO system design, providing hardware implementation solutions is essential for bridging the gap from theoretical concepts to real-time operational prototypes. In this paper, we focus on the investigation of the BER performance of an orthogonal spatial-multiplexing LoS MIMO link and its robustness to x- and z-axis antenna displacements. Hardware-in-the-loop measurements are performed with a custom demonstrator built for 60GHz LoS MIMO system verification achieving system data rates of 2.5Gb/s at uncoded BER of 1e-4. The results largely confirm the theoretical assumptions and the feasibility of LoS MIMO for short to medium range wireless backhaul applications.