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Radio Front-End

A multiple-antenna RF front-end will be connected to BEE, where all baseband algorithms are implemented in order to establish wireless transmissions. We have designed a parallel RF front-end that is scalable up to 16 antennas.

Many design parameters need to be considered for a multiple-antenna front-end: good matching of all components, common synthesizer and clocks, etc. To get a good understanding about the influence of all these parameters in multiple-antenna systems and for algorithm development, the analog impairments are first modeled on BEE. Our approach combines analysis of analog impairments in the design of RF front-end through modeling, simulation and reference design measurements of a single antenna front-end. Finally, a parallel RF front-end will enable us testing of multiple-antenna algorithms and synchronization schemes under various indoor channels and realistic analog hardware impairments. 

Fig 1: Exemplary 2.4-GHz front-end used for our wireless experiments.

Each quadrant consists of the following boards:

• 4 baseband boards

• 1 power supply card

• 1 local oscillator distribution board 

     One quadrant per 16 baseband boards will have:

• 1 digital clock board 

Fig 2: Card Cage with 2 complete hardware quad sets and antenna array.

Fig 3: BEE Processing Unit