Wireless local area network planning: an overview

When planning a wireless local area network, there are design issues that need to be considered. In this paper, the fundamentals of planning a wireless local area network are introduced and discussed to highlight the requirements involved. Network constraints, as their relevance to wireless network design is investigated. The paper concludes with an overview of wireless network planning solutions including commercial and free software, and an introduction to the author’s research

Time-Scale Domain Characterization of Time-Varying Ultrawideband Infostation Channel

The time-scale domain geometrical-based method for the characterization of the time varying ultrawideband (UWB) channel typical of an infostation channel is presented. Compared to methods that use Doppler shift as a measure of time-variation in the channel this model provides a more reliable measure of frequency dispersion caused by terminal mobility in the UWB infostation channel. Particularly, it offers carrier frequency independent method of computing wideband channel responses and parameters which are important for ultrawideband systems. Results show that the frequency dispersion of the channel depends on the frequency and not on the choice of bandwidth. And time dispersion depends on bandwidth and not on the frequency. It is also shown that for time-varying UWB, frame length defined over the coherence time obtained with reference to the carrier frequency results in an error margin which can be reduced by using the coherence time defined with respect to the maximum frequency in a given frequency band. And the estimation of the frequency offset using the time-scale domain (wideband) model presented here (especially in the case of multiband UWB frequency synchronization) is more accurate than using frequency offset estimate obtained from narrowband models

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

An Empirical Air-to-Ground Channel Model Based on Passive Measurements in LTE

In this paper, a recently conducted measurement campaign for unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) channels is introduced. The downlink signals of an in-service long-time-evolution (LTE) network which is deployed in a suburban scenario were acquired. Five horizontal and five vertical flight routes were considered. The channel impulse responses (CIRs) are extracted from the received data by exploiting the cell specific signals (CRSs). Based on the CIRs, the parameters of multipath components (MPCs) are estimated by using a high-resolution algorithm derived according to the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) principle. Based on the SAGE results, channel characteristics including the path loss, shadow fading, fast fading, delay spread and Doppler frequency spread are thoroughly investigated for different heights and horizontal distances, which constitute a stochastic model.Comment: 15 pages, submitted version to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Current status: Early acces

Wireless Channel Path-Loss Modelling for Agricultural and Vegetation Environments: A Survey

This work undertakes an extensive survey of the channel modelling methods and path-loss characterization carried out in agricultural fields and vegetation environments in an attempt to study the state-of-the-art in this field, which, though vastly explored, still presents extremely diverse opportunities and challenges. The interface for communication between nodes in a typical agricultural field is the wireless channel or air interface, making it imperative to address the impairments that are exclusive to such a communication scenario by studying the characteristics of the medium. The performance of the channel is a direct indicator of the quality of communication. It is required to have a lucid understanding of the channel to ensure quality in transmission of the required information, while simultaneously ensuring maximum capacity by employing limited resources. The impairments that are the very nature of a typical wireless channel are treated in an explicit manner covering the theoretical and mathematical models, analytical aspects and empirical models. Although there are several propagation models characterized for generic indoor and outdoor environments, these cannot be applied to agricultural, vegetation, forest and foliage scenarios due to the various additional factors that are specific to these environments. Owing to the wide variety, size, properties and span of the foliage, it also becomes extremely challenging to develop a generic predictive model for all kinds of crops or vegetation. The survey is categorized into fields containing specific crops, greenhouse environment and forest/foliage scenarios and the key findings are presented

The COST IRACON Geometry-based Stochastic Channel Model for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication in Intersections

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communications can improve traffic safety at road intersections and enable congestion avoidance. However, detailed knowledge about the wireless propagation channel is needed for the development and realistic assessment of V2V communication systems. We present a novel geometry-based stochastic MIMO channel model with support for frequencies in the band of 5.2-6.2 GHz. The model is based on extensive high-resolution measurements at different road intersections in the city of Berlin, Germany. We extend existing models, by including the effects of various obstructions, higher order interactions, and by introducing an angular gain function for the scatterers. Scatterer locations have been identified and mapped to measured multi-path trajectories using a measurement-based ray tracing method and a subsequent RANSAC algorithm. The developed model is parameterized, and using the measured propagation paths that have been mapped to scatterer locations, model parameters are estimated. The time variant power fading of individual multi-path components is found to be best modeled by a Gamma process with an exponential autocorrelation. The path coherence distance is estimated to be in the range of 0-2 m. The model is also validated against measurement data, showing that the developed model accurately captures the behavior of the measured channel gain, Doppler spread, and delay spread. This is also the case for intersections that have not been used when estimating model parameters.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Cellular system information capacity change at higher frequencies due to propagation loss and system parameters

In this paper, mathematical analysis supported by computer simulation is used to study cellular system information capacity change due to propagation loss and system parameters (such as path loss exponent, shadowing and antenna height) at microwave carrier frequencies greater than 2 GHz and smaller cell size radius. An improved co-channel interference model, which includes the second tier co-channel interfering cells is used for the analysis. The system performance is measured in terms of the uplink information capacity of a time-division multiple access (TDMA) based cellular wireless system. The analysis and simulation results show that the second tier co-channel interfering cells become active at higher microwave carrier frequencies and smaller cell size radius. The results show that for both distance-dependent: path loss, shadowing and effective road height the uplink information capacity of the cellular wireless system decreases as carrier frequency increases and cell size radius R decreases. For example at a carrier frequency fc = 15.75 GHz, basic path loss exponent α = 2 and cell size radius R = 100, 500 and 1000m the decrease in information capacity was 20, 5.29 and 2.68%

Characterisation of propagation in 60 GHz radio channels (invited)

Narrowband as well as wideband measurements have been performed in various indoor and outdoor environments in order to enable the development of reliable prediction models for 60 GHz radio channels. In addition, results of deterministic modelling on the basis of geometric ray-tracing have been compared with measurement results, showing that simple ray-tracing can be used to estimate both the narrowband and wideband characteristics of a 60 GHz radio channel. This paper reviews the measurement and modelling activities performed by various research institute