Channel Sounding

Here, at Fraunhofer HHI, we offer our channel sounding expertise to deliver raw measurement data, but also develop and validate channel models for M-MIMO. This encompasses extensive measurement campaigns in urban, rural or indoor environments. Self-developed measurement equipment like the HIRATE channel sounding system in conjunction with switched array antennas enable us to measure directional channel impulse responses with high accuracy.

In addition we use several highly flexible channel sounder setups based on self- developed hardware and test and measurement equipment to perform channel measurements in mm-wave frequency bands up to 100 GHz. They provide large processing gains and achieve high dynamic ranges despite the high path loss. The correlation-based setups support bandwidths up to 1.5 GHz and high repetition rates to observe time-variant channels and collect large, statistically reliable data sets. Parallel transmit and receive channels enable simultaneous multi-frequency measurements, which are particularly well suited to study the frequency dependence of channel characteristics. We apply novel techniques based on rapid virtual array acquisition to gain accurate directional information with exceptionally fine angular resolution.