A Scalable and Cost-Efficient Antenna Testbed Using FPGA-Server Compound Structures for Prototyping 6G Applications

Developing the sixth generation mobile network infrastructure is expected to utilize mm-Wave technology and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) arrays to enable high-speed, low-latency communication. Designing suitable MIMO arrays that support multi-GHz bandwidths per channel imposes enormous requirements on all sub-components performing analog-digital conversion, data acquisition, and digital signal processing. Current MIMO testbeds lack the bandwidth and radio-frequency sampling rates of future mobile network applications. Therefore, we propose a cost-efficient architecture based on off-the-shelf components that is scalable in the number of antennas per testbed and the attainable bandwidth per channel. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by implementing two testbeds and transmitting a broadband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signal over concurrent channels. In comparison to current MIMO testbeds, we support 2.46 times higher bandwidths per channel and 9.84 times higher radio-frequency sampling rates, which we demonstrate by performing infield measurements. To conclude, our testbed allows for the proto-typing of broadband MIMO antennas, forming the foundation for cost-efficient evaluation of novel communication protocols in large test fields.