1
DEMIURGO, an SDR Testbed for Distributed
MIMO
Juan Manuel Vázquez Burgos (1), Efrein Gago-Cerezal(1) ,Valentín Alonso Gracia (2), Luis M Campoy
Cervera (2)
(1)
Telefonica Móviles, (2 )Telefonica I+D
Abstract—The DEMIURGO Testbed allows the test and
characterization of distributed MIMO links, in an scenario
comprising up to 4 terminals x 4 antennas, in an effective and
flexible way.
This testbed is based on an already operational Telefonica
Móviles SDR Platform (PRAGA) [1], which includes a independent radio links with terminals T1, T2, T3 …Tm. The
reprogrammable digital signal processing module based on
FPGAs and DSPs, to enable flexible implementation of
algorithms, and an analog IF front-end with RF modules.
In this paper, the advantages and drawbacks of distributed
MIMO implementation on a cellular operator network will be
analyzed, and the influence of main limiting factors on the
performance of the overall BER in a 4x4 multi-user / multi-
antenna systems will be presented.
Index Terms—Distributed MIMO, MIMO, OFDM, SDR,
SDMA, B3G
I. INTRODUCTION
T he radio spectrum is a scarce asset for mobile
communication networks. The increase in spectral
efficiency is the permanent goal of evolving radio access
technologies. One of the most important advances will be the
feasibility of the theory on multiple-input, multiple-output
communications. In MIMO, the improved efficiency comes
from the purposeful establishment and characterisation of
multiple, parallel radio paths between every transmitter and
receiver.
MIMO requires significant processing and more than just a
pair of antennas between every transmitter and receiver. At
some point, the contribution of each antenna has to be
processed independently. The antennas sharing the same
cluster have to be far apart, so their paths are uncorrelated.
This increases both the cost and the size of equipment. The
trend for cellular user terminals is to make them smaller and
relatively un expensive, so it is expected that the main part of
the MIMO processing will be done at the Base Station.
In DEMIURGO, four single-antenna terminals are
connected simultaneously with a base station over the same
radio environment. The base station has four independent
antenna systems.
II. DISTRIBUTED MIMO APPROACH
In distributed MIMO the base station (BS) has a set of
antennas A1, A2, A3 …An. Each of them establishes m
link between Ai and Tj is characterised by a reciprocal transfer
function Hij(ω,t) so there is a set of paths Ai|in,out = Hij(ω,t)
Tj|out,in which is best expressed in matrix form:
A = [H(ω,t)] T
The matrix H is estimated and inverted in the base station
(BS)
The natural multipath decorrelation guarantees that the matrix
H is well conditioned and its inverse H-1 exists and doesn’t
amplify noise, the base station transmits H-1 A and the
satellite station received:
H H-1 A + H-1 N
Where H-1 N is the noise component added with a noise power
similar to N. The signal processing at the BS discriminates
the received signal from each terminal. In the downlink, the
BS uses the information of the inverse channel obtained
previously (the matrix H-1) to conform the output signals so
each terminal receives just the desired signal without
interference of the information sent to the other terminals.
The mechanism relies on the estimation of the radio channel
characteristics, known as Channel State Information (CSI).
This technique is also called space division multiple access
(SDMA), since it allows a channel based mechanism for
multiple user access to a base station, in a way similar to
CDMA, where orthogonal codes allow multiple access. The
mechanism relies on the knowledge of the radio channel
characteristics, known as Channel State Information (CSI).
The acquisition of the CSI of each antenna-user radio
channel is performed by using orthogonal physical layer
headers in uplink transmission, one header per user, being
time orthogonality the simplest choice [3]. Downlink CSI is
derived from the uplink one, which requires TDD as
duplexing choice and round trip burst duration shorter than the
channel coherence time. Once the base station has acquired
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the CSI from all the individual radio channels it can proceed
to establish and manage terminal clusters, selecting terminals A1 T1
with the highest decorrelation in the same cluster, in order to Praga S
optimise multiple access orthogonality, and avoid ill- A2 T2

Praga T
conditioned channel matrices. Praga S
One of the main drawbacks of this MIMO approach is its A3 T3
Praga S
need to take into account the frequency and time
A4 T4
desynchronisation between the different received signals at Praga S
the base station, since they are originated in different user
terminals. This paper presents the evolution of transmission
quality degradation on a distributed MIMO system due to real
Fig.1. DEMIURGO testbed achitecture
world impairments, and inaccurate synchronization
performance.
This paper presents the impact of implementation
IV. TIME SYNCHRONITATION PERFORMACE
inaccuracies on the transmission quality degradation of a
distributed MIMO system The dispersion of the Time of Arrival at the BS has to be
limited within certain bounds.
III. DEMIURGO TEST BED In the beginning, the PRAGA-S units did not perform any
system synchronization, in spite of their significantly different
distances from PRAGA-T. The uncontrolled dispersion of the
The DEMIURGO test bed architecture is shown in Figure
time of arrival is in the order of nanoseconds in an indoor
1. It allows the test and characterization of distributed MIMO
environment.
links, in an scenario comprising up to 4 terminals x 4
The time dispersion at the BS receiver results in loss of
antennas, in an effective and flexible way.
orthogonality of received packet headers, and loss of
This platform is based on the Telefonica Móviles Software
synchronization in individual OFDM symbols. These
Defined Platform (SDR) PRAGA, capable of establishing
impairments degrade the bit Error Rate (BER) performance of
reconfigurable air interfaces links, and on which configurable
the individual OFDM links, as shown in Figure 2 for different
OFDM TDD links are being implemented for MIMO
SNR values.
experimentation.
The analysis of link performance for different delays will
OFDM TDD links are already implemented on the existing
lead to the definition of a synchronization strategy, whose
PRAGA platform, which incorporates SISO equipment. Prior
outcome will be maintaining uplink time of arrival at the Base
to their implementation the links were successfully simulated
Station between established bounds.
with Matlab: the equipment was simulated in fixed point and
The results of the figure 2 were obtained by simulation of
the radio channels in double precision floating point format,
the MIMO transmission of enough big number of data packet
respectively. These simulations are now being reused, with
in an indoor scenario using QPSK transmission, no
upgrades, for modelling the distributed MIMO test bed.
codification, randomized and interleaving data.
Taken into account that the SNR real of the Radio Head
The Demiurgo OFDM TDD testbed has two kinds of units:
(RH) is about 30dB a minimum penalty is expected due to the
PRAGA-T, This single unit emulates a MIMO Base
delay in the scenario considered
Station with four transmitter/receiver entities. It performs
the signal processing for distributed MIMO.
PRAGA-Satellite:. These units are a simpler version of
PRAGA-T. Each PRAGA-S emulates a user terminal
with a single transmitter/receiver. The transmission
physical layer header implements uplink orthogonality
with the other PRAGA-S elements.

The PRAGA platform (both implementations) has been

designed with a graphic user interface (GUI) based on a WEB
page server hosted in its Communication and Control Module,
easily accessible to the user with any standard Internet
navigator.

Fig. 2. BER versus SNR for different packet radio delays

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V. RADIO HEAD GAIN VARIATION INFLUENCIE The new units were tuned to fulfill the new requirements in
In a MIMO transmission environment, the main single cause gain difference and thermal stability
of degradation is the inaccuracy of the dynamic gain settings
for parallel amplification chains. All the prototypes were characterized and adjusted in order
The MIMO channel, which was used for the synchronization to fulfill the requirements in gain difference between them and
assessment, was also used for measuring the impact of a also the thermal stability of the RH was taken into account and
consistently inaccurate gain setting. A setting error of between considered.
0.0 and 1.0 dB was applied on one of the four parallel
amplification chains at the BS. The BER degradation is shown
on Figure 3. The degradation is significant even for small gain
Radio Head Ripple
deviations (Indoor environment, QPSK, no codec, random and
interleaving data) 21 ∆± 0,25
20.9

Pout [dBm]
20.8 Pot

20.7 Pot (2)

20.6

20.5
-26 -13 0 13 26
carrier Nº

Fig.5 Measurement of the spectral response of every radio head (RH)

Figure 5 shows two output power measurements of a radio

Fig. 3: BER v.s. Gain impairment in a channel
The main conclusion of the simulation is that the gain
adjustment of the amplification chain for the 4 channels is a
critical aspect of the demonstrator.
As a result, the prototypes were rebuilt to higher standards
and the minimum gain setting accuracy was set at 0.25 dB or
less for the rest of the measurements, although it could
perform to 0.1 dB. The thermal stability was also improved.
chain at different times. It is an output of a characterization
testbed, which has been implemented as an aid for the correct
setup of the radio frontends and the whole RF amplification
chains (amplifiers, filters and attenuators).
The flatness of the gain over the channel bandwidth has to
be considered as well. A generic RF amplification chain was
modeled with Matlab using the experimental results obtained
in the laboratory.
The gain response model, based in the measurements
obtained in the characterization of a Radio Head, is an input
for simulation scenarios and signal processing algorithms.

VI. RADIO HEAD CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING

These requirements of gain adjustment led to an improved

Radio Head prototype for the DEMIURGO distributed MIMO
testbed..

Terminal Praga S
de control fig.6 : 4 channels Gain Module
Praga S
100Base-T Figures 6 and 7 show the modulus and phase of the
modeled gain ripple for four amplification chains with Surface
Praga S Acoustic Wave filters (SAW).

Praga T Praga S

fig. 4: DEMIURGO characterization set-up


fig 7. : 4 channels Gain Phase
VII. SPECTRAL GAIN RESPONSE INFLUENCE
The same MIMO channel than the others simulations was
used in order to compare the effect of the different factors that
could limit the performance of the MIMO distributed
transmission.
fig 8: BER for a ideal gain chain v.s. the real gain chain
Figure 8 compares the simulation results for an ideal and a
real testbed. The ideal testbed has amplification chains, which
have a flat frequency response, whereas the real testbed has
the real frequency response that was obtainable from off-the-
shelf components. It doesn’t seem to be a critical point,
though, because the performance degradation is less than 1.0
dB for an SNR of 30 dB.
VIII. CHANNEL GAIN VARIATION INFLUECNCE
The effects of the thermal stability of the amplifiers and the
SAW filter were also analyzed in terms of gain variation.
4
fig. 9: BER v.s. total gain variation between channels, band ripple
The main limiting factor is the gain difference between
parallel radio chains. If the gain drifts were kept the same on
all chains, their effect could be corrected by a single AGC
(Automatic Gain Control).
The maximum acceptable gain drift from both aging and
thermal instability was estimated in just 0.11 dB. If the gain
difference of a single chain wandered somewhere beyond this
value, it would have to be corrected by an independent AGC.
IX. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents the results of the analysis of the influence
of various limitation factors in MIMO distributed
transmission.
The main source of impairment in performance comes from
small gain setting differences between parallel radio chains. In
the future, the sets components for parallel radio chains may
have to come from the same batches. It is also possible that a
set of radio chains will have to keep a parallel set of
independent --but well coordinated-- Automatic Gain
Controls.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The DEMIURGO project was partially funded by the
Ministry of Technology and Science of Spain (Ministerio de
Ciencia y Tecnología) under the PROFIT programme.
(Programme for the Promotion of Technical Research.)
REFERENCES
[1] Luis M Campoy, W Warzanskyj, Jose Emilio Vila “SDR TESTBED
FOR NEW RADIO INTERFACE EVALUATION AND
INTEROPERABILITY TESTING,” WWRF forum 2004
[2] Hui Luo, Ruey-Wen Liu, Xieting Lin, Xin Li “The autocorrelation
matching method for distributed mimo communications over unknown
fir channels” in Proc. of ICASSP, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2001
[3] Allert van Zelst, “Implementation of a MIMO OFDM-Based Wireless
LAN System” IEEE Trans on signal processing, Vol. 52, n. 2, Feb. 2004