As more devices are connected wirelessly, the need for wireless technologies that can handle increased data and capacity demands has grown exponentially. The coming onslaught of Internet of Things (IoT) devices threatens to overwhelm existing wireless networks while the proliferation of video streaming and virtual reality technology requires faster data rates than are currently available. Multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) is one technology that has the potential to solve these problems by enabling the next generation of wireless. By using more than one antenna, multiple data signals can be sent in the same time and frequency domain to offer huge gains in capacity, throughput, reliability, or a combination of the three. As leading researchers and wireless companies rush to explore new communications technologies, MIMO will be a crucial topic.
The MIMO Prototyping System includes USRP RIO radio heads, FlexRIO FPGA co-processors, clock distribution modules. The system can be configured in a variety of sizes to meet the requirements of a wide range of MIMO applications including single user MIMO (SU-MIMO), multiple user MIMO (MU-MIMO), and Massive MIMO.