Multiple speaker/microphone platform as an educational tool for wireless communications

We implement simple multi transmit/receive device acoustic communication platform. The implementation requirements of the platform consist of personal computers, inexpensive microphones and a preamplifier, speakers and software that are available in every communication laboratory. The platform is meant to address key physical layer aspects in modern multiple antenna wireless communication: multipath channel, frame start synchronization, frequency offset synchronization, channel estimation, receive diversity, transmit diversity, basic types of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission, smart array processing and direction of arrival estimation. The data transmission scenarios use burst mode transmission of time limited symbols over a frequency flat acoustic channel. The platform is intended for educational purposes and it is simple and easy to understand.