Pioneering Scalable Prototyping for Mid-Band XL-MIMO Systems: Design and Implementation

The mid-band frequency range, combined with extra large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (XL-MIMO), is emerging as a key enabler for future communication systems. Thanks to the advent of new spectrum resources and degrees of freedom brought by the near-field propagation, the mid-band XL-MIMO system is expected to significantly enhance throughput and inherently support advanced functionalities such as integrated sensing and communication. Although theoretical studies have highlighted the benefits of mid-band XL-MIMO systems, the promised performance gains have yet to be validated in practical systems, posing a major challenge to the standardization. In this paper, preliminaries are first discussed, followed by an analysis of key challenges in constructing a real-time prototype system. Subsequently, the design and implementation of a real-time mid-band XL-MIMO prototype system are presented. Benefiting from the novel architecture, the proposed prototype system supports metrics aligned with standardization, including a bandwidth of 200 MHz, up to 1024 antenna elements, and up to 256 transceiver chains. Operating in time-division duplexing (TDD) mode, the prototype enables multiuser communication with support for up to 12 users, while retaining standard communication procedures. Built on software-defined radio (SDR) platforms, the system is programmable and allows for flexible deployment of advanced algorithms. Moreover, the modular architecture ensures high scalability, making the system adaptable to various configurations, including distributed deployments and decentralized signal processing. Experimental results with the proposed prototype system demonstrate real-time digital sample processing at 1167.85 Gbps, a peak data throughput of 15.81 Gbps for 12 users, and a maximal spectral efficiency approaching 80 bit/s/Hz.