Software-Defined Radio-Based 5G Physical Layer Experimental Platform for Highly Mobile Environments

Abstract

In this study, we developed a 5th generation mobile communication (5G) physical layer (PHY) experimental platform based on software-defined radio (SDR), which makes it easy to customize the transmission and reception process. The developed platform consists of an SDR-based transmitter and a receiver. Digital baseband processing is performed using internal software-based programs. Therefore, it can be used to evaluate the wireless communication performance of 5G (or user-defined modified/customized 5G) not only in a laboratory but also in any field. In addition, as an example of the use of this platform, we proposed signal processing that can receive signals at speeds of 500 km/h or higher and performed an experimental evaluation by running it on the developed platform. Through laboratory experiments in a multipath fading environment using a fading emulator, performance of the developed platform was validated. Moreover, it was confirmed that this platform can satisfy the required block error rate of 0.1 even in a multipath environment at a velocity of approximately 630 km/h, which exceeds the requirements of 5G. Therefore, it has sufficient resilience to be used in high-moving-speed environments. This platform is expected to enable simple testing and evaluation of various new PHY technologies.