ScaleSync: Scalable Multiple Antenna Phase Synchronization
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The benefits of antenna arrays and multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) have elevated them to a central position in preliminary 5G discussions. The large sizes of these arrays enable fine resolution RF sensing via angle-of-arrival (AoA) techniques. While MU-MIMO does not require phase synchronization, AoA estimation does. Past methods addressing this prerequisite either suffer from error sources, scale poorly, or necessitate special transceivers. I circumvent these issues by proposing a wired daisy chain architecture that synchronizes multiple commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) RF chains by adding off-chip hardware. This architecture achieves an order N (array size) reduction in connection path length compared to a centralized architecture, thus enabling system scalability. To test this scheme, I design hardware and add it to ArgosV2: a pre-existing multiple antenna experimental base station. Evaluations of this implementation characterize the performance of my architecture. I conclude by successfully capturing images in the form of AoA spectra.
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Javed, Abeer. "ScaleSync: Scalable Multiple Antenna Phase Synchronization." (2017) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105580.