OTA-Validated SDR-Based mmWave RF Transceiver Architecture for 5G Wireless Communication Systems

Abstract

The fast-moving development of the 5 G Wireless communication has driven the development of fully flexible and high-frequency transceiver architecture that can both support millimeter-wave (mmWave) operation and real-time reconfigurability. Here, solutions based on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) offer an easily reconfigurable operating framework that enables quick prototyping and testing performance. This article describes the design, implementation and Over-the-Air (OTA) validation of a simulation tested mmWave Software Defined Radio transceiver (SDR) operating on a 28 GHz frequency band to support 5G New Radio (NR) specifications. The architecture under design leverages reconfigurable baseband processing such as through the GNU Radio and MATLAB/Simulink platforms and high-frequency analog front-ends such as beam-steerable patch array antennas that are positively designed and optimized by means of the CST Microwave Studio. The physical layer is implemented using a USRP X310 platform supplemented with outside mmWave up/down converters and link-level simulations are used to measure parameters, like signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), error vector magnitude (EVM), and system throughput. It conducted OTA testing in controlled anechoic to prove end-to-end link performance with line-of-sight (LOS), and non-line-of-sight (NLOS). The transceiver is measured at an EVM of below 3.5% latency with an end-to-end under 2ms, and peak throughput of 600 Mbps illustrating that it is differentiated to 3GPP Release 16. These findings justify the possibility and scalability of the proposed SDR-based transceiver to be used within the 5G mmWave applications, and further developments would focus on applications to multi-antenna MIMO and AI-assisted dynamic beam management.