Indoor wireless communications and applications

Chapter 3 addresses challenges in radio link and system design in indoor scenarios. Given the fact that most human activities take place in indoor environments, the need for supporting ubiquitous indoor data connectivity and location/tracking service becomes even more important than in the previous decades. Specific technical challenges addressed in this section are(i), modelling complex indoor radio channels for effective antenna deployment, (ii), potential of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) radios for supporting higher data rates, and (iii), feasible indoor localisation and tracking techniques, which are summarised in three dedicated sections of this chapter

Study, Design and Analysis of Antennas for Millimeter Waves and UWB Applications

Since the release by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of a license free UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) bands mainly offering bandwidth of 7.5 GHz (from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz) and UWB at Millimetre(MM) wave frequency centred at 60 GHz (57 GHz to 64 GHz) for wireless communications, UWB is rapidly advancing as a high data rate wireless communication technology. As is the case in conventional wireless communication systems, antennas plays a very crucial role in UWB systems. However, there are more challenges in designing a UWB antenna than designing narrow band one. A suitable UWB antenna should be capable of operating over an UWB as allocated by the FCC. At the same time, satisfactory radiation properties over the entire frequency range with minimal distortion are also necessary. This thesis focuses on UWB antenna design and analysis for two different frequency bands, the first UWB antenna designed for frequency range from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz and the second one is a MM wave UWB antenna which is centred around 60 GHz and ranges from 57 GHz to 64GHz. Studies have been undertaken covering the areas of UWB fundamentals and antenna theory. Extensive investigations and theoretical analysis were also carried out on proposed UWB antennas. In this work literature survey is carried out about different antenna structures used for UWB applications. To design antenna for UWB (3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz), studies have been carried out and four Swastika-shaped slot antenna designs have been proposed. Both ground plane and radiating patch are modified in proposed antennas. In the first three antenna designs (antenna design 1, antenna design 2, antenna design 3) the radiating patch is modified with concentric circular slots of different dimensions while in antenna design 4, two inverted L-shaped slots on ground plane are used to achieve enhanced bandwidth and reduced return losses. All these proposed novel antennas are of compact size having dimensions of 24 mm x 24 mm and they almost cover entire UWB range (3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz). The antenna parameters like bandwidth, return loss, radiation pattern and impedance of these antennas are analysed and discussed in chapter 2

Experimental study of on-body radio channel performance of a compact ultra wideband antenna

In this paper, on-body radio channel performance of a compact ultra wideband (UWB) antenna is investigated for body-centric wireless communications. Measurement campaigns were first done in the chamber and then repeated in an indoor environment for comparison. The path loss parameter for eight different on-body radio channels has been characterized and analyzed. In addition, the path loss was modeled as a function of distance for 34 different receiver locations for propagation along the front part of the body. Results and analysis show that, compared with anechoic chamber, a reduction of 16.34% path loss exponent is noticed in indoor environment. The antenna shows very good on-body radio channel performance and will be a suitable candidate for future efficient and reliable body-centric wireless communications

Implementation and Investigation of a Compact Circular Wide Slot UWB Antenna with Dual Notched Band Characteristics using Stepped Impedance Resonators

A coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with dual notched band characteristics is presented in this paper. The circular wide slot and circular radiation patch are utilized to broaden the impedance bandwidth of the UWB antenna. The dual notched band functions are achieved by employing two stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) which etched on the circular radiation patch and CPW excitation line, respectively. The two notched bands can be controlled by adjusting the dimensions of the two stepped impedance resonators which give tunable notched band functions. The proposed dual notched band UWB antenna has been designed in details and optimized by means of HFSS. Experimental and numerical results show that the proposed antenna with compact size of 32 × 24 mm2, has an impedance bandwidth range from 2.8 GHz to 13.5 Hz for voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2, except the notch bands 5.0 GHz - 6.2 GHz for HIPERLAN/2 and IEEE 802.11a (5.1 GHz - 5.9 GHz) and 8.0 GHz - 9.3 GHz for satellite and military applications

A Novel Transparent UWB Antenna for Photovoltaic Solar Panel Integration and RF Energy Harvesting

A novel transparent ultra-wideband antenna for photovoltaic solar-panel integration and RF energy harvesting is proposed in this paper. Since the approval by the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) in 2002, much research has been undertaken on UWB technology, especially for wireless communications. However, in the last decade, UWB has also been proposed as a power harvester. In this paper, a transparent cone-top-tapered slot antenna covering the frequency range from 2.2 to 12.1 GHz is designed and fabricated to provide UWB communications whilst integrated onto solar panels as well as harvest electromagnetic waves from free space and convert them into electrical energy. The antenna when sandwiched between an a-Si solar panel and glass is able to demonstrate a quasi omni-directional pattern that is characteristic of a UWB. The antenna when connected to a 2.55-GHz rectifier is able to produce 18-mV dc in free space and 4.4-mV dc on glass for an input power of 10 dBm at a distance of 5 cm. Although the antenna presented in this paper is a UWB antenna, only an operating range of 2.49 to 2.58 GHz for power scavenging is possible due to the limitation of the narrowband rectifier used for the study

Highly efficient impulse-radio ultra-wideband cavity-backed slot antenna in stacked air-filled substrate integrated waveguide technology

An impulse-radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) cavity-backed slot antenna covering the [5.9803; 6.9989] GHz frequency band of the IEEE 802.15.4a-2011 standard is designed and implemented in an air-filled substrate integrated waveguide (AFSIW) technology for localization applications with an accuracy of at least 3 cm. By relying on both frequency and time-domain optimization, the antenna achieves excellent IR-UWB characteristics. In free-space conditions, an impedance bandwidth of 1.92 GHz (or 29.4%), a total efficiency higher than 89%, a front-to-back ratio of at least 12.1 dB, and a gain higher than 6.3 dBi are measured in the frequency domain. Furthermore, a system fidelity factor larger than 98% and a relative group delay smaller than 100 ps are measured in the time domain within the 3 dB beamwidth of the antenna. As a result, the measured time-of-arrival of a transmitted Gaussian pulse, for different angles of arrival, exhibits variations smaller than 100 ps, corresponding to a maximum distance estimation error of 3 cm. Additionally, the antenna is validated in a real-life worst-case deployment scenario, showing that its characteristics remain stable in a large variety of deployment scenarios. Finally, the difference in frequency-and time-domain performance is studied between the antenna implemented in AFSIW and in dielectric filled substrate integrated waveguide (DFSIW) technology. We conclude that DFSIW technology is less suitable for the envisaged precision IR-UWB localization application