MIMO OTA Testing of Communication System Using SDRs in Reverberation Chamber [Measurements Corner]

This paper presents a study of measuring complete over-the-air (OTA) system performance of software-defined radios (SDRs) such as the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) developed by Ettus Research and National Instruments. We use the reverberation chamber (RC) for measuring the OTA system throughput (TPUT) when the USRP is configured in single-input single-output, 1 x 2 single-input multiple-output, 2 x 1 multiple-input single-output, and 2 x 2 multiple-input multiple-output. The measured and simulated results are compared. The theoretical model of an ideal threshold receiver is used to simulate the OTA TPUT of the USRP. The total radiated power and total isotropic sensitivity of the USRP is also measured inside the RC. According to the authors' knowledge, complete active system performance measurements of USRPs in an RC are being published for the first time.