Implementing Mimo in Mobile Devices By Means of Virtual Receive Antennas

BACKGROUND MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology is increasingly viewed as a solution to the ever increasing data rates required in mobile devices and its use is taking off, particularly in wireless LAN networks and future cellular communication systems. Among the existing MIMO schemes, spatial multiplexing could directly increase the data transfer rate by employing more transmit antennas. However its applicability is currently limited in mobile devices due to the requirement to have at least as many receiving antennas as transmitting antennas, which in turn necessitates larger devices. Academics at the University of Manchester have developed a novel solution to this problem, which allows the number of receiving antennas for spatial multiplexing to be reduced, thereby enabling smaller, cheaper and less power hungry mobile devices. THE TECHNOLOGY AND PROOF OF PRINCIPLE STATUS The technology, known as virtual receive antennas, has been developed, analysed and simulated. It employs simple techniques including transmission timing offset, receive oversampling, and signal equalisation. This proof of concept has demonstrated that as few as only one receiver antenna is required for multiple transmit antennas. KEY BENEFITS
• Obviates the need for matching the number of receive antennas to the number of transmit antennas
• Based on an adaptation of the existing spatial multiplexing technique, so it can be easily incorporated into upcoming standards (e.g 802.11n for wireless LAN and 3G LTE)
• Provides mobile operators with the ability to offer high data rates to customers without increasing bandwidth
• Consumers gain high quality wireless services with very small and cheaper devices operating at low power APPLICATIONS Wireless communication systems using MIMO spatial multiplexing technology, potentially including:
• Wireless LAN
• Laptop PC’s
• Data adapter cards
• Future cellular systems, such as 3G LTE and 4G
• Mobile devices (e.g. smart phones, PDA’s)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Patent application filed March 2007 The work has been carried out by Dr Daniel K.C. So in the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester. OPPORTUNITY UMIP would like to hear from you if: You are a mobile phone company interested in licensing the technology. You are a designer of DSP chip sets for mobile devices interested in licensing the technology. You are a network operator keen to drive the uptake of 3G LTE services amongst subscribers.

Type of Offer: Licensing



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