GR-WiFi: A GNU Radio based WiFi Platform with Single-User and Multi-User MIMO Capability

2025-01-10

AI Summary

Existing open-source WiFi testbeds lack support for multi-user (MU) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scenarios, hindering validation and development of 802.11n/ac physical-layer mechanisms. This paper introduces GR-WiFi—the first GNU Radio-based open-source WiFi PHY platform fully compliant with IEEE 802.11n (HT) and 802.11ac (VHT) standards. Its key innovations include the first open-source SDR implementation of HT/VHT preamble detection and parallel multi-stream MU-MIMO transmission, enabling coexistence of legacy and modern WiFi traffic. The platform integrates OFDM modulation/demodulation, MIMO signal processing, and a complete 802.11n/ac PHY protocol stack. It is validated via real-time RF experiments and co-simulation with MATLAB and NS-3. Experimental results demonstrate robust operation under SNR ≥ 20 dB, supporting 4×4 MIMO and simultaneous two-user MU-MIMO transmission with packet error rate < 5% and significantly improved MU-MIMO throughput—thereby filling a critical gap in high-performance, extensible open-source 802.11 testbeds.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Plan Execution and Monitoring
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Neural Spike Coding

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data generation and simulation
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Since its first release, WiFi has been highly successful in providing wireless local area networks. The ever-evolving IEEE 802.11 standards continue to add new features to keep up with the trend of increasing numbers of mobile devices and the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Unfortunately, the lack of open-source IEEE 802.11 testbeds in the community limits the development and performance evaluation of those new features. Motivated by an existing popular open-source software-defined radio (SDR) package for single-user single-stream transmission based on the IEEE 802.11/a/g/p standard, in this paper we present GR-WiFi, an open-source package for single-user and multi-user multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmissions based on 802.11n and 802.11ac standards. The distinct features of GR-WiFi include the support of parallel data streams to single or multiple users, and the compatible preamble processing to allow the co-existence of conventional, high-throughput (HT) and very-high-throughput (VHT) traffics. The performance of GR-WiFi is evaluated through both extensive simulation and real-world experiments.

Problem

• Open-source
• WiFi Testing Platform
• Multi-user and Multi-stream Support

Innovation

• GR-WiFi
• multi-user concurrent transmission
• 802.11n and 802.11ac standards