OTA Testing of 3G-5G Devices with MIMO: From Anechoic Chambers to Reverberation Chambers and ... Back Again?

Paper i proceeding, 2017

The present paper describes the paradigm shift in OTA testing that came with the arrival of the 4G wireless system. The testing was previously mainly done in anechoic Line-Of-Sight (LOS) environments, and now in 4G it is done in reverberation chambers, emulating Rich Isotropic MultiPath (RIMP). Now we are preparing for the 5G wireless system, which is expected to have mm-wave antennas with steerable lobes. This will require OTA testing in anechoic environments again, but with an emphasis on system measurements, i.e. data rate throughput for an arbitrary location and orientation of the user, referred to as Random-LOS.