Abstract
Channel models and channel measurements in conjunction with system simulations and system metric calculations do offer, to some degree, the possibility of assessing the viability of a novel communications systems, particularly B4G systems. However, they do not offer a complete picture of system performance. Issues such as hardware complexity, transmit and receive synchronization and implementation impairments are not generally addressed by such approaches. For example, in many simulations, only the baseband channel is considered, which in turn could mean that the effect of frequency offset at radio frequency (RF) upconversion and downconversion stages may be conveniently ignored. Other aspects of the communications link, such as the quality of the antennas at either end, are also often neglected in this kind of performance assessment. The solution to such analytical shortcomings is to employ a wireless testbed.