Open Source RFNoC-Based Testbed for Millimeter-Wave Experimentation Using USRP Software Defined Radios

Abstract

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communications, as any other emerging technology, require suitable experimentation platforms that allow validation and field tests in both academic and industry research environments. Existing platforms formm-wave systems are based on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf(COTS) devices or expensive proprietary hardware platforms. In this paper we propose a mixed software-hardware testbedfor mm-wave experimentation using Software Defined Radio(SDR) devices. Specifically, we design and implement the hardware processing blocks required to decode the preamble of frames that follow the structure of IEEE 802.11ad compliant frames, working at a scaled-down bandwidth, along with their integration in X310 USRP devices using the RFNoC framework and 60GHz transceivers. The testbed is validated for different indoor channels with real-time Channel Impulse Response (CIR)measurements. The design exploits the maximum bandwidth for X310 devices while leaving enough FPGA logic space (≈60%),for further upgrades and extension of the system.