Signalion announces a 4x4 MIMO-Wireless Prototyping System
MIMO systems (multiple transmit and receive antennas) become more and more popular. Many future cellular wireless systems like WiMAX, 3-GPP LTE, as well as the short range communication Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11n rely on the increased throughput of MIMO-systems with up to 4 antennas.
With HaLo420 Signalion provides a hardware-in-the-loop prototyping system which enables to transmit data over the air directly from a simulation environment such as MATLAB. Currently transmission in two important ISM-bands at 2.4 and 5-GHz bands is supported for up to four antennas at the transmitter and receiver respectively
MIMO-system design requires real-world verification using demonstrators/prototypes before respective products are designed. This is due to the many uncertainties associated with the state-of-the-art modelling of MIMO transmission. However, dedicated and custom tailored solutions have been the only way of setting up such demonstrators/prototypes so far. HaLo420 is a wireless prototyping solution that simply replaces the channel model in the performance simulation. An ‘easy to use’ application programming interface (API) enables the seamless integration of the radio hardware into the simulation environment. Thus the set-up of conceptual demonstrations or proof-of-concept prototypes with HaLo420 is just a matter of very few hours. This speeds up the wireless system prototyping tremendously.
Due to its easy handling the HaLo system is also very attractive for the academic community and can even be used in student lab courses. Such hands-on engineering by running real radio transmissions motivates the students much more than just theoretical lectures. Thus HaLo420 is a perfect tool for both fundamental research as well as for education.
HaLo420 enhanced the successful family of hardware-in-the-loop systems offered by Signalion. Following systems are currently available:
- HaLo220 System with 2 transmit and receive antennas
- HaLo420 System with 4 transmit and receive antennas
- HaLo425 System with 2 transmit and 4 receive antennas