Surface MIMO: Using Conductive Surfaces For MIMO Between Small Devices

Main content

The paper presents Surface MIMO, a novel approach that enables MIMO between small devices, without the need to increase the physical size of the devices. Surface MIMO leverages these conductive surfaces to enable MIMO capabilities. Specifcally, similar to traditional RF communication, surface MIMO uses a single antenna at the transmitting and receiving devices. In addition, as shown in Fig. 1, it uses a single point of contact with the conductive surface to enable a second MIMO path through the surface. In order to solve the surface’s ability to communicate, the author explores two minimally-invasive options: coating the surface with conductive paint and using conductive cloth over tabletops. The author leverage the wideband characteristics of these conductive surfaces to demonstrate the first Gbps surface communication system that can directly transfer bits through the surface at up to 1.3 Gbps.

Contribution

The paper introduces the concept of surface MIMO that enables MIMO communication between small devices via conductive surfaces.
The paper provides a theoretical model as well as a detailed endto-end experimental characterization of our surface MIMO channel using commodity Wi-Fi hardware.
The paper presents the frst communication design that can support Gbps data rates over surfaces.