First Demonstration and Visualization of Receive Spatial Modulation Using the "Radio Wave Display"

In this paper, a demonstration of new single processing candidate techniques for the future fifth generation of mobile networks and the internet of things, called Transmit Spatial Modulation and Receive Spatial Modulation, is described. These techniques exploit multiple antennas to boost the spectral efficiency of the wireless link. However, compared to multipleantenna systems, they use less Radio-frequency modules, and are expected to be lower in cost, size and energy consumption. They are thus promising to provide high data rate to/from small connected objects. In Transmit Spatial Modulation, the receiver, (a base station for instance), additionally to conventional demodulation, detects 'where, in space, the signal comes from' to get additional data bits. In Receive Spatial Modulation, the receiver (a connected object for instance), additionally to conventional demodulation, detects 'where, in space, the signal is arriving at' to get additional bits. Thanks to a new device called the Radio Waves Display and our spatial modulation test bed, for the first time, we visualize, in real time, the spatial repartition of the signal around and on the receiver. This enables even the general public to perform a spatial de-modulation, in a visual manner, and understand intuitively, the concept.