Virtual Receiver Matrix for Multifunction Communication and Sensing Wireless Systems Using Simultaneous Incident Waves at the Same Carrier Frequency

In this paper, simultaneous reception and demodulation of incident signals at the same carrier frequency is proposed and demonstrated. Not only this technique significantly enhances the communication capacity, but also most importantly, it enables multifunction communication and sensing applications. This technique is set to exploit both the phase difference and the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of incoming waves to demodulate multiple and simultaneous incident signals at the same carrier frequency. In addition, this is made possible through the combinatory and dynamic allocation of activated receiving units that are spatially distributed in the virtual receiver matrix (VRM). The theoretical analysis is studied in this work and as a proof-of-concept, a prototype is fabricated for 5G applications. The measurement results show EVM of less than 10% for the two distinct QPSK signals.