ArgosNet: A Multi-Cell Many-Antenna MU-MIMO Platform

We built and deployed a multi-cell network testbed of massive-MIMO base stations across Rice University campus, called ArgosNet. While ArgosNet is highly configurable, its default configuration employs four 100-antenna base stations to serve 40 battery-powered mobile clients at 3.7 GIlz. In ArgosNet, the base stations are time-frequency synchronized and have direct fiber connections to a server cluster, enabling advanced wireless techniques such as Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP). We extended the Argos channel measurement system to support multi-cell topologies, then conducted initial measurements showing the performance of CoMP in many-antenna MU-MIMO networks.