Invited Paper: mmMoReEdge: A mmWave Modular and Reconfigurable Testbed Design using a Smart Edge Framework

As the complexity of hardware (sensors, components, antennas) and software (algorithms) increases, it is practical and efficient to manage and process test configuration and data analysis as close to the testbed as possible (inline) instead of offline compute platforms. We present mmMoReEdge, a mmWave modular and reconfigurable testbed inspired by a smart edge networking and communication framework, typically found in IoT devices. In mmMoReEdge, complex signal processing is performed on the edge (local servers in close proximity) of a group of testbed nodes. mmMoReEdge offers modularity via configuration of phased-array antennas, RF front ends, ADC, and DAC, while the edge processing provides reconfigurability via scalable inline processing. Using a mathematical model for processing time (the proposed figure of merit), we present results which show that mmMoReEdge is 50% to 70% faster as compared to an offline general-purpose processor based architecture and is 30% to 40% faster as compared to a node-based architecture with one FPGA.