M-CUBE

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) technologies represent a cornerstone for emerging wireless network infrastructure, and for RF sensing systems in security, health, and automotive domains. However, the lack of an experimental platform has been impeding research in this field. In this article, we propose to fill the gap with M3 (M-Cube), the first mmWave massive MIMO software radio. M3 features a fully reconfigurable array of phased arrays, with up to 8 RF chains and 256 antenna elements. Despite the orders of magnitude larger antenna arrays, its cost is orders of magnitude lower, even when compared with state-of-the-art single RF chain mmWave software radios. Case studies have demonstrated the usefulness of M3 design for research in mmWave massive MIMO communication and sensing.