Performance Evaluation of MIMO Techniques with an SDR-Based Prototype

Abstract

There is tremendous pressure on modern wireless communication systems. First, there are more people than ever using wireless communications as their primary source of information and communication. Second, the data demand per user has exploded thanks to new mobile applications such as Facebook and Uber. Of note, data demand is being driven especially by streaming video. As a result, there has never been a greater need for finding creative solutions to improving networks' performance, reliability, and efficiency. This paper examines the use of several different algorithms for wireless data transmission that can result in greater reliability and throughput based on the use of multiple channels -- MIMO diversity and spatial division multiplexing techniques. The contribution of this work is to show through simulations and experiments that the reliability or throughput of a communication system can be significantly improved by using a combination of multiple channels based on open source and programmable hardware and software, and to bridge the gap between theory and practice.