Towards the development of a hardware simulator for MIMO radio channels

The aim of the PRIR/sup a/ SIMPAA2 project, which continues the research activities of the RNRT/sup b/ SIMPAA/sup c/ project, is the realization of a hardware simulator of MIMO propagation channels for UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) and WLAN (wireless local area networks) applications. The simulator must reproduce the behavior of the radio propagation channel, thus making it possible to test "on table" the mobile radio equipments. The advantages are: low cost, short test duration, the possibility to ensure the same test conditions in order to compare the performance of various equipments.