Modular Hardware Design for High-Performance MIMO-Capable SDR Systems to Accelerate 6G Development

Compared to 5th generation (5G), 6G is expected to offer latencies below 1 ms, higher data rates in the range of multiple Gbit/s, and enable the use of new frequency bands and application fields such as joint-communication and sensing (JCAS). For the development of the new mobile standard, research, and industry are increasingly relying on the use of high-performance multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-capable software-defined radio (SDR) systems. However, existing systems are often limited in their applicability due to bandwidth, frequency, and performance limitations by manufacturer-specific hardware. To overcome these limitations, we present a modular hardware design for a high-performance MIMO-capable SDR system. We enable the exchange of the digital processing unit, the replacement, or configuration of the analog IF front ends, and the configurability of the clock distribution network. Therefore, our system achieves high adaptability compared to manufacture-specific systems. To match the changing requirements in 6G, our modular SDR system bypasses the time-consuming and costly hardware design process and accelerates the overall development. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our modular SDR system by implementing a high-performance orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) radar, which requires high sampling and data rates processed in real-time. Based on our high-performance example application, our modular SDR system matches the performance of fixed-structure SDR systems, required for 6G.