The IST METRA project

This article summarizes the main achievements of the Multi-Element Transmit and Receive Antennas (METRA) Project, an IST research and technological development project carried out between January 2000 and June 2001 by Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, the Center for Personkommunikation of Aalborg University, Nokia Networks, Nokia Mobile Phones, and Vodafone Group Research and Development. The main objective of METRA was the performance evaluation of multi-antenna terminals in combination with adaptive antennas at the base station in UMTS communication systems. A MIMO channel sounder was developed that provided realistic multi-antenna channel measurements. Using these measured data, stochastic channel models were developed and properly validated. These models were also evaluated in order to estimate their corresponding channel capacity. Different MIMO configurations and processing schemes were developed for both the FDD and TDD modes of UTRA, and their link performance was assessed. Performance evaluation was completed by system simulations that illustrated the benefits of MIMO configurations to the network operator. Implementation cost vs. performance improvement was also covered by the project, including the base station and terminal manufacturer and network operator viewpoints. Finally, significant standards contributions were generated by the project and presented to the pertinent 3GPP working groups.