A Next Generation Wireless Simulator Based on MIMO-OFDM: LTE Case Study

The complexity of next generation wireless systems is growing exponentially. The combination of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is considered as the best solution to provide high data rates under frequency-selective fading channels. The design and evaluation of MIMO-OFDM systems require a detailed analysis of a number of functionalities such as MIMO transmission modes, channel estimation, MIMO detection, channel coding, or cross-layer scheduling. In this paper we present a MIMO-OFDM-based simulator that includes the main physical and link layer functionalities. The simulator has been used to evaluate the performance of the 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology for different MIMO-OFDM techniques under realistic assumptions such as user mobility or bandwidth-limited feedback channel.