Antenna Arrays Design and Calibration for 4×4 Mobile MIMO Channel Sounding at 3.5 GHZ

The use of antenna arrays at emission and reception is an attractive solution for future wireless systems in order to improve data rates and quality of service. The performance of these systems is very dependent on propagation channel. In this context, channel characterization and modeling are crucial. In this paper, we present the design and calibration of two antenna arrays for high resolution MIMO channel sounding at 3.5 GHz. This frequency band concerns wireless local loop applications. The beam patterns of these arrays are measured in anechoic chamber. A calibration algorithm is applied on these beam patterns to obtain better multi-path parameters estimation. The results obtained after applying the calibration algorithm are presented. Moreover, simulation results clearly show the calibration effect on multi-path parameter estimation.