Partner selection in indoor-to-outdoor cooperative networks: an experimental study

In this paper, we develop a partner selection protocol for enhancing the network lifetime in cooperative wireless networks. The case-study is the cooperative relayed transmission from fixed indoor nodes to a common outdoor access point. A stochastic bivariate model for the spatial distribution of the fading parameters that govern the link performance, namely the Rician K-factor and the path-loss, is proposed and validated by means of real channel measurements. The partner selection protocol is based on the real-time estimation of a function of these fading parameters, i.e., the coding gain. To reduce the complexity of the link quality assessment, a Bayesian approach is proposed that uses the site-specific bivariate model as a-priori information for the coding gain estimation. This link quality estimator allows network lifetime gains almost as if all K-factor values were known. Furthermore, it suits IEEE 802.15.4 compliant networks as it efficiently exploits the information acquired from the receiver signal strength indicator. Extensive numerical results highlight the trade-off between complexity, robustness to model mismatches and network lifetime performance. We show for instance that infrequent updates of the site-specific model through K-factor estimation over a subset of links are sufficient to at least double the network lifetime with respect to existing algorithms based on path loss information only.Comment: This work has been submitted to IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications in August 201

Polarimetric distance-dependent models for large hall scenarios

A comprehensive polarimetric distance-dependent model of the power delay profile (PDP) and path gain is proposed. The model includes both specular multipath components (SMCs) and dense multipath components (DMC), the latter being modeled with an exponential and power law. The parameters of the model were estimated from polarimetric measurements of a large hall radio channel under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions at 1.3 GHz with a dedicated procedure. The validity and robustness of the proposed approach are provided by the good agreement between the polarimetric data and models for the investigated transmitter-receiver distance range. Furthermore, the description of the radio channel with path loss models is discussed for cases where the DMC is included, and a two-step method to compute the path loss characteristics directly from the measured data is developed. The results of this contribution highlight the fact that a complete polarimetric description of all propagation mechanisms and related path loss models is desired to design faithful polarimetric radio channel models

Realistic performance measurement for body-centric spatial modulation links

Spatial Modulation is a new transmission mode which increases spectral efficiency by employing information-driven transmit antenna selection. This performance is realized at a reduced hardware complexity and cost because only a single radio-frequency transmit chain is necessary. A measurement campaign is performed to assess the characteristics of spatial modulation over a body-centric communication channel, transmitting from a walking person with textile antennas integrated into the front and back sections of a garment, towards a base-station in realistic conditions. In the transmitted frames, additional spatial multiplexing as well as space-time coded data blocks are included. The off-body communication link is analyzed for line-of-sight as well as non line-of-sight radio wave propagation, comparing the characteristics of the different transmission modes under equal propagation conditions and for an equal channel capacity of 2 bit/s/Hz