PRODUCT
Learnings accumulated throughout over 10 years of research and development in the analysis of wireless links has been distilled/packaged into a software product made available for licensing, MIMObit. MIMObit serves as a tool for antenna design using statistically robust principles enabling optimal product performance over many environments and modes of use. Using exact electromagnetic formulations of the antenna system and propagation environment, MIMObit solves for throughput and capacity - with the ability to scale up to multi-element MIMO scenarios. As far as we know - there does not exist a competing product able to provide this level of analysis at the accuracy MIMObit does.
Multi Element Antennas (MEAs) or sometimes called MIMO antenna systems, have introduced additional degrees of freedom in the design of wireless communication systems. As such, traditional characterization and evaluation of these MIMO (i.e. multi-port) antenna systems is no longer adequate. For good system design, performance is best assessed at the higher levels of the target applications. MIMObit treats MIMO antenna system thoroughly and allows their performance evaluation at the levels of capacity and throughput, rather than just in terms of the traditional attributes of gain and radiation efficiency - providing a more robust MEA design criteria. The MIMObit software has been architected with this mentality - such that whether you are an antenna designer, a systems engineer, a communications engineer, or a spectrum manager experimenting with advanced Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) algorithms, you need to know and apply a broad range of concepts and tools that will allow you to more thoroughly exploit the maximum potential of your work. MIMObit aspires to be a tool with features affording you such a broad range of experimentation.
WHAT: A simulation tool based on an electromagnetics exact formulation of a wireless link and allowing its user to:
Assess the performance of MIMO antenna systems at the capacity and throughput level
Assess the dynamic range of communication algorithms with realistic antenna systems
Study Spectrum Sharing, Dynamic Spectrum Access and System Coexistence
WHY: Smart Antenna Algorithms typically oversimplify by considering a MIMO antenna system to consist of a number, say N, of individual antennas. MIMObit considers it as what it really is: An antenna system which happens to have N ports. The ramifications are not trivial.
WHO: MIMObit uses a cross-layer formulation of wireless communications. The following users/disciplines find it useful:
Base Station, User Equipment or Access point Antenna engineers who have to make product design decisions. They can create smaller/cheaper products for the same throughput, or higher throughput for the same size/cost product.
Communication engineers studying realistic antenna ramifications to smart algorithms such as 'Antenna Selection', Direction of Arrival Estimation, Channel Estimation, etc.
Engineers investigating Spectrum Sharing, Dynamic Spectrum Access and System Coexistence
LICENSING: Network (i.e. Floating) as well as Node Locked Licenses are available requiring the Windows Operating system. Please contact sales directly for more purchase information
DESCRIPTION
MIMObit analyzes networks consisting of Tx and Rx radios enabled with multi-antenna systems in a variety of propagation environments. It also provides Spectrum Utilization Information such waterfall charts, Occupancy and signal or interference Power Spectral Density in the environment.
MIMObit is based on an electromagnetics exact formulation of the network formed by arbitrary distributions of Tx and Rx radios. The radios in the propagation environment are grouped into three groups, signal transmitters, interference transmitters and receivers. All radios could be outfitted with single or multiple antenna systems. The user can customize the excitation vectors of each radio so as to apply various algorithms of choice. MIMObit then calculates signal and interference Power Spectral Density in the environment, Spectrum Occupancy, waterfall graphs, Capacity and Bit Rates for LTE, 802.11n 802.11ac and WiMAX radios. MIMObit also includes a Method of Moments tool to describe various dipole arrays and reflectors. MIMObit also allows the user to import antenna files from simulations via the HFSS and CST's Microwave Studio, FEKO and the XFDTD EM simulation tools. It supports simple and complicated propagation models such as LOS, flat-Earth, iid, SCME, Winner II, Winner+ and IEEE TGn. It also accepts user defined propagation models/files. MIMOscript is the scripted version that could be invoked from within in-house codes for additional research studies and investigations. MIMObit is able to handle any wireless system, e.g. any frequency, any antenna system, and any technology.
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna systems are being employed in WiFi to increase robustness and throughput and are fundamental to the successful deployment of Cognitive Radio, 4G and 5G wireless systems. But, unlike past practices, MIMO antenna systems cannot be adequately described with traditional attributes of gain and radiation efficiency alone. Furthermore, the same techniques that optimize MIMO systems have the greatest potential in optimizing Spectrum Utilization and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) approaches. Thus, integrated approaches, where antenna design decisions are made at the Capacity/Throughput level, while DSA decisions are made at the Spectrum Utilization Efficiency (SUE) level are required in order to arrive at optimal cost-performance solutions.
MIMObit delivers on this. For the antenna designer, MIMObit provides performance evaluation of MEA systems in terms of Throughput and Capacity (Open Loop, Beamforming, Waterfilling). Based on an EM exact formulation, MIMObit treats antenna systems very accurately, including antenna terminations, element coupling, matching circuits, full active E-field gains and various standards based as well as Ray Traced custom RF propagation models. For the DSA designer and spectrum manager, MIMObit provides user-defined power masks and temporal behaviors of Signal and Interference Tx radios and evaluates RF Radio Maps, Harmful Interference, Spectrograms and Spectrum Utilization.
