Near-field MIMO wireless test systems, structures, and processes

A method comprising:

• powering a MIMO device located within a test chamber;
• controllably processing a multipath signal through a plurality of signal paths, wherein the multipath signal is attenuated to emulate a distance between the MIMO device and a plurality of test antennas, and wherein each of the plurality of test antennas is associated with an antenna path;
• transmitting the processed multipath signal from the plurality of test antennas located within the test chamber;
• receiving, at each MIMO antenna of the MIMO device, a downlink signal corresponding to the transmitted multipath signal;
• processing the downlink signals received by the MIMO device;
• and
• generating an output that characterizes downlink performance of the MIMO device based on the downlink signals.

A method comprising:

• causing an uplink signal to be transmitted by each of a plurality of device antennas of a wireless multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) device;
• receiving a combined signal at each of a plurality of test antennas, where each test antenna is associated with an antenna path;
• attenuating each of the antenna paths with a programmable attenuator;
• combining the combined signals to emulate a distance between the plurality of device antennas and the plurality of test antennas;
• and
• determining throughput of the MIMO device at the emulated distance.