Verification of the Random Line-of-Sight Measurement Setup at 1.5-3 GHz Including MIMO Throughput Measurements of a Complete Vehicle

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology 2020-11, Vol.69 (11), p.13165-13179
• Main Authors: Kildal, Madeleine Schilliger, Mansouri Moghaddam, Sadegh, Razavi, Aidin, Carlsson, Jan, Yang, Jian, Alayon Glazunov, Andres
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Antenna arrays; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Communications systems; Diameters; Far fields; Feeds; Line of sight communication; Metals; MIMO (control systems); Over-the-air (OTA); Performance evaluation; Plane waves; Radio equipment; random-los; reflector; Systems analysis; throughput; Transceivers; vehicular communication; Wireless communication; Wireless communications
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2020.3021250

The performance evaluation of wireless systems is crucial for the development of future systems with more connected devices. It is essential to have an easy and relevant method for ensuring the wireless communication performance of the devices. We have recently developed a new random line-of-sight (random-LOS) measurement system for evaluating the communication performance of wireless devices, e.g., transceivers and antennas installed on a vehicle. In the measurement system, a plane wave is generated in the test zone emulating the far-field wave transmitted from a radio base station. In this paper we present both numerical simulations and actual experimental results of the random-LOS over-the-air (OTA) measurement setup operating in the 1.5-3 GHz band. The measurement accuracy is determined by the field variations within the test zone, where a smaller variation gives better measurement accuracy. In this paper the achieved accuracy expressed in terms of standard deviation (STD) was evaluated to be approximately 1 dB of the power within a cylindrical test zone of height 0.4 m and diameter 2 m. The active multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance of antenna systems installed on an actual vehicle was measured and evaluated using the presented setup. A comparison to a theoretical zero forcing (ZF) receiver is also presented.