Determination of hub port attenuation satisfying radio link path losses for hardware emulation

In this paper we introduce a framework to emulate the path loss of radio network links in a laboratory environment. The emulator network comprises one or more multiport radio frequency hubs, with variable attenuation on each port, in order to emulate the radio path loss between any two radios. The problem in this emulation approach is the determination of the appropriate port attenuation to match the multi-dimensional link losses (signal attenuations) and signal-to-interference ratios between multiple radios of a practical network. This has been structured as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) for both single-hub and multiple-hub emulation. We describe an algorithm based on Freuder’s solution synthesis to find the solution to the CSP. For emulation with multiple hubs, a clustering algorithm is described to assign radios to different hubs. Experimental results are also presented to validate the accuracy of emulation.