Preliminary measurements for wireless testbed

Abstract

As part of the development of a cooperative wireless network, a transmitter and a receiver based on IEEE 802.11a were simulated using Matlab and implemented practically on testbeds. This project explores the different features offered by OFDM. OFDM has been developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital communication, whether wireless or over copper wires, used in applications such as digital television and audio broadcasting, wireless networking and broadband internet access. This project focuses on performance evaluation of OFDM transceivers through both simulation and practical measurements. Some typical channel models were simulated, which include Rayleigh flat fading channel, Rayleigh frequency selective channel, Rician frequency selective channel and. AWGN channel. Comparison between the simulation results was carried out. Some important parameters which indicate the performance were measured under both LOS (line-of sight) and non-LOS conditions. Various methods were implemented to measure and calculate these parameters. Furthermore, the practical measurement results were compared with the simulation results in order to investigate those factors that affect the performance of the transceiver.