Wideband and Ultra Wideband Radio Propagation in Heavy Multipath Environments

Abstract

The authors have focused on wideband, including ultra-wideband (UWB, 3.1 to 10.6GHz) radio propagation in various environments, such as a small space-craft and a passenger car, moreover on-body radio propagation measurements have been conducted. Many studies have been reported about indoor propagation for narrowband and wideband. However previous study has not been examined characteristics between 10-MHz and 1-GHz frequencies. In our previous study, UWB and narrowband propagation were measured in a UWB frequency band within closed/semi-closed spaces (e.g. a spacecraft, a passenger car, and a metal desk equipped with a metal partition). While narrowband propagation resulted in considerable spatial variations in propagation gain due to interferences caused by multipath environments, UWB yielded none. This implies that the UWB systems have an advantage over narrowband from a viewpoint of reducing fading margins. Thus, a use of UWB technology within spacecrafts has been proposed with a view to partially replacing wired interface buses with wireless connections. Adoption of wireless technologies within the spacecrafts could contribute to reduction in cable weight (and launching cost as a result), reduction in the cost of manufacture, more flexibility in layout of spacecraft subsystems, and reliable connections at rotary, moving, and sliding joints. Path gains and throughputs were also measured for various antenna settings and polarizations in the small spacecraft. Polarization configurations were found to produce almost no effect on average power delay profiles and substantially small effects on the throughputs. Furthermore, statistical channel models were proposed. Also UWB technologies have been considered for use in wireless body area networks (WBAN) because of their possible low power consumption and anti-multipath capabilities. A series of propagation measurements were carried out between on-body antennas in five different rooms. A new path loss and statistical models considering room volume had been proposed. In this paper, we evaluated propagation characteristics in heavy multipath environments, especially examined the channels at 10-MHz to 1-GHz frequencies.