19 - Front-end architectures and impairment corrections in multimode and multi-antenna systems

Summary

Introduction

Nowadays the market continues to show a real interest in the development of telecommunication networks based on radiofrequency (RF) systems. Particularly, we can note a proliferation of radiofrequency standards such as WiFi, WiMax, DVB-T, or the 3G or 4G standards and a strong desire to merge those standards in a single terminal. Along with the existing standards, all new standards allow the operators to offer new and better services in terms of speed, quality, and availability. Consequently, in order to handle this important diversity of telecommunication techniques, there is a growing interest in developing new front-end architectures capable of processing several standards.

Of course, one first point is to enhance the digital resources of the terminal to offer Software Defined Radio (SDR) potential so that the structure can be easily reconfigured and evolved. But along with this evolution towards high numerical capacities, terminals are also required to propose an RF part enabling multi-standard, multi-frequency and often multi-antenna operations (referred to as multi-* terminals).