Europe Finland : The multichannel emulator Propsim™C8 has already established the position of de-facto standard for the MIMO emulator. The new integrated version provides increased usability and efficiency for product integration and verification testing of MIMO systems.

The Propsim™C8 can be equipped with a MIMO Extension Option, enabling testing of up to 4x4 MIMO or 2x4 full duplex MIMO systems with a single channel emulator. This solution is targeted at research, development and testing teams working with MIMO algorithm research and development or product integration and verification testing.

The Propsim™C8’s wide frequency area (350MHz to 6GHz) and bandwidth (70MHz, optionally beyond 100MHz) provides a platform for the development of MIMO techniques on 3G, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 4G systems. This also enables the use of the same system in parallel evaluation of various standard systems, for example comparison of WiMAX equipment operating in different frequency bands.

The channel emulation capabilities of the Propsim™C8 enable emulation of all standard and future channel models, including the IEEE 802.11n and other pre-standardisation MIMO channel models such as 3GPP SCM and SCME models for 3G. The channel modelling tools available with the Propsim™C8 allow users to create correlating MIMO models based on complex correlation matrices, DoA or 802.11n type approaches using antenna correlation matrices and path groups. The Propsim ™C8 implementation also enables emulation of any user defined or measured channel models.

MIMO techniques are based on the performance gain achieved by using multiple transmit and receive antennas providing parallel un-correlating propagation channels between the transmitter and the receiver. As the correlation between the different antenna elements, e.g. propagation paths, is the focal phenomenon enabling the MIMO gain in realistic deployment environment. Thus, it is essential that the channel emulator is capable of emulating realistic MIMO –scenarios with maximum accuracy and repeatability. The Propsim™C8 integrated MIMO-emulator has been designed to provide a solution to the most important issue in MIMO emulation - correlation accuracy and repeatability.

The Propsim™C8 integrated design with digital signal splitting and combining provides a stable test bench for the emulation of multi-channel environments.

The Propsim™C8 multichannel emulator also supports integrated generation of AWGN and modelated interference signals with channel emulation capabilities. With the MIMO channel emulation capabilities, Propsim™C8 is an unrivalled solution for research and development of MIMO algorithms, as well as for the integration and verification or comparison of MIMO-capable wireless products and systems.

Elektrobit Testing Ltd., part of Elektrobit Group, provides advanced test solutions for R&D, production and optimisation of wireless networks and equipment. The Propsim™C8 is available from Elektrobit Testing Ltd.