A 4 x 4 FPGA-based wireless testbed for LTE applications

We present early results from a 4x4 2.4GHz ISM band multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) testbed developed at the University of Newcastle for over-the-air evaluation of MIMO algorithms. To provide maximum flexibility for development of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) algorithms, the testbed is designed around a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The testbed features a simple GUI interface for testbed control as well as a MATLAB interface allowing real channel measurements to be used in algorithm development and evaluation. These features are illustrated here with experimental results from the implementation of Alamouti Space-Time Coding with 64-QAM.