Design and Implementation of System Components for Radio Frequency Based Asset Tracking Devices to Enhance Location Based Services. Study of angle of arrival techniques, effects of mutual coupling, design of an angle of arrival algorithm, design of a novel miniature reconfigurable antenna optimised for wireless communication systems

The angle of arrival estimation of multiple sources plays a vital role in the field of array signal processing as MIMO systems can be employed at both the transmitter and the receiver end and the system capacity, reliability and throughput can be significantly increased by using array signal processing. Almost all applications require accurate direction of arrival (DOA) estimation to localize the sources of the signals. Another important parameter of localization systems is the array geometry and sensor design which can be application specific and is used to estimate the DOA. In this work, various array geometries and arrival estimation algorithms are studied and then a new scheme for multiple source estimation is proposed and evaluated based on the performance of subspace and non-subspace decomposition methods. The proposed scheme has shown to outperform the conventional Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) estimation and Bartlett estimation techniques. The new scheme has a better performance advantage at low and high signal to noise ratio values (SNRs). The research work also studies different array geometries for both single and multiple incident sources and proposes a geometry which is cost effective and efficient for 3, 4, and 5 antenna array elements. This research also considers the shape of the ground plane and its effects on the angle of arrival estimation and in addition it shows how the mutual couplings between the elements effect the overall estimation and how this error can be minimised by using a decoupling matrix. At the end, a novel miniaturised multi element reconfigurable antenna to represent the receiver base station is designed and tested. The antenna radiation patterns in the azimuth angle are almost omni-directional with linear polarisation. The antenna geometry is uniplanar printed logspiral with striplines feeding network and biased components to improve the impedance bandwidth. The antenna provides the benefit of small size, and re-configurability and is very well suited for the asset tracking applications

Angular dispersion of radio waves in mobile channels

Multi-antenna techniques are an important solution for significantly increasing the bandwidth efficiency of mobile wireless data transmission systems. Effective and reliable design of these multi-antenna systems requires thorough knowledge of radiowave propagation in the urban environment. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to obtain a better physical understanding of radiowave propagation in mobile radio channels in order to provide a basis for the improvement of radiowave propagation prediction techniques for urban environments using knowledge from 3-D propagation experiments and simulations combined with space-wave modelling. In particular, the work focusses on: the development of an advanced 3-D mobile channel sounding system, obtaining propagation measurement data from mobile radio propagation experiments, the analysis of measured data and the modelling of angular dispersive scattering effects for the improvement of deterministic propagation prediction models. The first part of the study presents the design, implementation and verification of a wideband high-resolution measurement system for the characterisation of angular dispersion in mobile channels. The system uses complex impulse response data obtained from a novel 3-D tilted-cross switched antenna array as input to an improved version of 3-D Unitary ESPRIT. It is capable of characterising the delay and angular properties of physically-nonstationary radio channels at moderate urban speeds with high resolution in both azimuth and elevation. For the first time, omnidirectional video data that were captured during the measurements are used in combination with the measurement results to accurately identify and relate the received radio waves directly to the actual environment while moving through it. The second part of the study presents the results of experiments in which the highresolution measurement system, described in the first part, is used in several mobile outdoor experiments in different scenarios. The objective of these measurements was to gain more knowledge in order to improve the understanding of radiowave propagation. From these results the dispersive effects in the angular domain, caused by rough building surfaces and other irregular structures was paid particular attention. These effects not only influence the total amount of received power in dense urban environments, but can also have a large impact on the performance and deployment of multi-antenna systems. To improve the data representation and support further data analysis a hierarchical clustering method is presented that can successfully identify clusters of multipath signal components in multidimensional data. By using the data obtained from an omnidirectional video camera the clusters can be related directly to the environment and the scattering effects of specific objects can be isolated. These results are important in order to improve and calibrate deterministic propagation models. In the third part of the study a new method is presented to account for the angular dispersion caused by irregular surfaces in ray-tracing based propagation prediction models. The method is based on assigning an effective roughness to specific surfaces. Unlike the conventional reflection reduction factor for Gaussian surfaces, that only reduces the ray power, the new method also distributes power in the angular domain. The results of clustered measurement data are used to calibrated the model and show that this leads to improved channel representations that are better matched to the real-world channel behavior

Over-The-Air Testing using Wave-Field Synthesis

Today's wireless communication devices, such as GNSS receivers, smart-phones, etc. aim at a high integration grade to save space, costs and energy consumption. Besides small devices, also very large communication devices, e.g. cars with integrated LTE antennas exist. To accelerate the development process and time-to-market, adequate test procedures are needed to ensure proper functioning of all device components. The goal of this thesis is to develop test processes that guarantee for reproducible test conditions and to allow for comparable performance measurements of communication systems of different sizes. This thesis consists of two parts, namely Wave Field Synthesis for electrically small, and Wireless Cable for electrically large devices.Moderne Kommunikationsgeräte, z. B. Smartphones und GPS-Empfänger streben einen hohen Integrationsgrad an, um Kosten, Platz und Energie zu sparen. Es existieren auch große Geräte, wie zum Beispiel Fahrzeuge mit integrierten Long Term Evolution-Antennen. Um den Entwicklungsprozess zu beschleunigen, werden adäquate Testverfahren benötigt, die eine korrekte Funktionsweise aller Gerätekomponenten sicherstellen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, Testverfahren einschließlich Kalibrierverfahren zu entwickeln, die reproduzierbare Testbedingungen erlauben, um vergleichbare Leistungstests von Kommunikationssystemen zu ermöglichen. Diese Arbeit besteht aus zwei Teilen. Der erste Teil beschäftigt sich mit Wellenfeldsynthese (WFS) für elektrisch kleine Geräte. Der zweite Teil präsentiert ein alternatives Testverfahren für elektrisch große Geräte, welches Wireless Cable (WLC) bezeichnet wird. Im WFS-Teil werden Simulationen durchgeführt, um die Anwendbarkeit der WFS für Over-The-Air-Tests in 2D und 3D zur Erzeugung ebener elektromagnetischer Wellen zu untersuchen. Ein Kalibrierverfahren wird für die 2D-WFS vorgestellt, um den Frequenzgang analoger Systemkomponenten zu entzerren. Das Kalibrierverfahren wird mit Hilfe der Metriken Error Vector Magnitude und Poynting Vector Angular Deviation verifiziert. Es werden zur Verifikation des gesamten WFS-Systems Messungen auf Basis von GPS durchgeführt, die mit kabelgebundenen Tests verglichen werden. Zur Demonstration der Vollständigen Mess- und Testprozedur werden verschiedene Mehrelement-Antennen unter identischen Messbedingungen verglichen. Einflüsse auf ein reales System durch Rauschen, Drift und Temperatureinfluss werden untersucht. Für 3D-WFS wird ein optimierender Algorithmus wird entwickelt und verifiziert, um Emulationsantennen auf einer Sphäre oder Hemisphäre optimal zu verteilen. Im Wireless Cable-Teil wird das gleichnamige Testverfahren vorgestellt, das als alternative Over-The-Air-Testmethode die Untersuchung großer Geräte erlaubt. Die Anwendbarkeit in nicht-reflexionsfreien Umgebungen wird demonstriert. Wie alle Over-The-Air-basierten Testverfahren berücksichtigt Wireless Cable auch Selbstinterferenz. Eine Langzeitstabilitätsanalyse wird durchgeführt, außerdem eine Verifikation der Anwendbarkeit eines realistischen Funkkanals für den Anwendungsfall Long Term Evolution.Today's wireless communication devices, such as GNSS receivers, smart-phones, etc. aim at a high integration grade to save space, costs and energy consumption. Besides small devices, also very large communication devices, e.g. cars with integrated LTE antennas exist. To accelerate the development process and time-to-market, adequate test procedures are needed to ensure proper functioning of all device components. The goal of this thesis is to develop test processes that guarantee for reproducible test conditions and to allow for comparable performance measurements of communication systems of different sizes. This thesis consists of two parts, namely WFS for electrically small, and WLC for electrically large devices. In the WFS part, simulations are conducted to verify the applicability of OTA tests using WFS for two- and three-dimensional emulation of plane electromagnetic waves. A calibration procedure is developed for 2D-WFS to compensate for analog components' frequency responses that include contributions of amplifiers, cables and antennas. This calibration procedure is verified by grid measurements to allow visual inspection of the plane waves, and by analysis of the wave shape using appropriate metrics. Reflections inside the anechoic chamber are analyzed and discussed. A verification measurement is performed and compared to conducted measurements using a GPS use case to verify the whole WFS OTA system. Three different multi-element antennas are investigated by emulation of identical wave-fields in each test run to demonstrate the general test procedure. System imperfections such as noise, drift and the influence of temperature are investigated. For 3D WFS OTA testing, an optimizing sub-sphere algorithm is developed to distribute EA on a sphere or hemisphere adequately. Simulations are conducted to verify the derived distributions. In the WLC part, the homonymous test method is presented as an alternative OTA test method especially suited for large test devices. The applicability even in non-anechoic environments is shown. A long-term stability analysis is performed, and a verification of the application of a realistic measurement-based propagation channel for the use case LTE is made

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

Effect of different platforms on coupling compensation matrices in AOA estimation algorithms using small size UCA

NoIn this paper the sensitivity of the decoupling matrix used for mutual coupling compensation in small size uniform circular arrays has been studied. The compensation matrix is calculated using the receiving mode technique for a 5-element uniform circular array and applied to two groups of direction finding algorithms, namely phase comparison-based (interferometry) and subspace-based algorithms. In the tracking application considered the receiver array is deployed on a car roof or aircraft, so the geometry of the platform influences the compensation results. In this work, the effect of different ground plane geometries in terms of the standard deviation of angular error for each estimation algorithm using simulation results is investigated. The results show that the calibration conditions used to determine the compensation matrix affect the AOA estimation accuracy