Abstract—The use of antenna arrays at emission andreception seems to represent a prominent solution for futurewireless systems, it improves data rates and enhances thequality of service. The performance of these systemsdepends mainly on the propagation channel. Therefore,channel’s characterization and modeling are crucial. In thisdocument, we present a MIMO (Multiple Input MultipleOutput) channel sounder at 3.5 GHz developed at IETR.One of the applications operating at this frequency is theWiMAX system. Different antenna arrays architectures aredesigned and calibrated at 3.5 GHz for high resolutionMIMO channel sounding. Antenna arrays beam patternsare measured and calibrated. The importance of this work isshown by ESPRIT simulations. Propagation measurementresults are needed to obtain realistic MIMO channel models.

Index Terms—Antenna arrays, radio propagation, wirelesschannel characterization and modeling, spatio-temporalmeasurements, MIMO channel sounder.

Cite: H. Farhat, G. Grunfelder, A. Carcelen and G. El Zein, "MIMO Channel Sounder at 3.5 GHz: Application to WiMAX System," Journal of Communications, vol. 3, no.5, pp. 23-30, 2008.