Ultra-Wideband channel sounder — Design, construction and selected applications

The paper describes construction, design, and application of a real-time ultra-wideband channel sounder. Its specific architecture allows measurements of time-variant radio propagation channels in different frequency bands. The sounder's stimulation signal is the maximum length binary sequence. Synchronous multi-channel operation is supported by its excellent timing stability and its low power consumption of miniature sized LTCC modules comprising custom integrated SiGe circuits. This is a prerequisite to build a multiple-input-multiple-output sounder which is suitable for sounding even in distributed scenarios such as sensor networks. Selected application examples demonstrated the performance and possibilities of the sounder.