ArgosV2: a flexible many-antenna research platform

Many-antenna base stations are a rapidly growing field in wireless research. A plethora of new theoretical techniques have been recently proposed for many-antenna base stations and networks. However, without experimental validation, it is difficult or impossible to predict the practicality and performance of these techniques in real hardware, under complex, rapidly varying, real-world conditions. Indeed, there is a significant demand for a flexible many-antenna research platform which supports rapid prototyping and validation of new massive-MIMO techniques. Leveraging our experience building Argos, a 64-antenna base station prototype, we have designed and built ArgosV2, a compact, powerful, and scalable many-antenna research platform based on WARP. In addition to the physical hardware and mechanical design, we are developing a software framework, ArgosLab, which will provide synchronization and channel estimation, greatly reducing the development effort for a wide range of massive-MIMO techniques. ArgosV2 is intended to provide ultimate scalability and programmability for experimental massive-MIMO research. The modular architecture and real-time capability of ArgosV2 can support up to 100s of base station antennas and 10s of users with streaming applications. For our demonstration, we will unveil a 96-antenna base station which supports real-time streaming applications to 32 users simultaneously.