Development of a Path Loss Model for Wave Propagation Into Selected Buildings at Universiti Putra Malaysia

In this thesis, the development of path loss prediction model for wave propagation into buildings at Universiti Putra Malaysia is described. Field strength measurements due to three base stations were carried out in three different buildings in the Universiti Putra Malaysia campus. The measurement setup consisted of an ADVANTEST U3641 Spectrum Analyzer and an AHSISAS-5 19-4 log periodic antenna A computer program has been developed to calculate the path loss from the measured field strength which in turn was used for comparison with available path loss models. The results indicate poor agreement between the measured and existing predicted path loss models where even the widely accepted COST 231 model deviated as high as 9.46%. The discrepancy between the measured and predicted path loss was even greater for other models such as the Microcell model (17.69%) and outdoor-indoor model (24.71%). An improved version of COST 23 1 model and an empirical path loss models have been proposed in this work to replace the COST 231 model. The improved COST 231 model was found from an optimization procedure by fitting the original model to the measured data, whilst the empirical model was obtained from regression analysis. The accuracy of the Improved COST 231 and empirical models was tested on different buildings and found to agree with measured data within 6.31%, and 7.85%, respectively. The Agilent VEE software was used to develop and execute the integrated ITMAPL program for wave propagation into buildings. The ITMAPL program is a user friendly program to calculate and display the path loss of radio propagation paths. It is implemented in the run time format version and has three options which are COST 231 model (CST), improved COST 231 model (ICS) and ITMANE new empirical model

Density Measurement of Compacted Asphalt Mixtures Using Non-Destructive Ground Penetrating Radar

This thesis describes the development of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system based on the electromagnetic wave reflection to determine the density of road pavement. The proposed method is simple, fast, non-destructive and within an acceptable accuracy of road pavement density. The theoretical analysis based on the three existing GPR Mixture Model (GMM) methods has been improved to produce the most optimized function to be incorporated within the proposed GPR system. The study involves three main procedures which are theoretical analysis, laboratory scale experimentation and reliability analysis. From these studies, the Lichtenecker Mixture Model is found to be the most accurate function compared to the other models like Nelson and Landau due to the smallest mean error between the prediction and the experimental result. During the laboratory experimentation, an engineering GPR prototype has been developed and used to measure the road pavement density of the road pavement slab sample. The GPR system consists of the transmitter which is signal generator as a microwave source, horn antenna for transmitting and receiving the signal, directional coupler with an adapter and spectrum analyzer to analyze the received signal. Nine road pavement slabs of middle boundary and ten slabs of upper and lower boundary of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) gradation were developed and tested at four different frequencies within the range of 1.7-2.6 GHz. The predicted signal attenuation from the theoretical analysis is compared to the signal attenuation measured from the laboratory experimentation. The comparison produces the relative error between these two results and it is used in the optimization process. The finding from the optimization process suggested that three additional constant parameters which are Volume factor, Permittivity factor and Attenuation factor need to be included to improve the existing GMM model. A field test had been conducted as an outdoor reliability analysis to validate the optimized GMM model. From the field test, it shows that the proposed GPR system works well with an error range from 3.37 % to 4.72 % for nine locations. Finally, a complete GPR system has been developed based on the optimized GMM attenuation curve to predict the density of a real road pavemen

Road pavement density measurements using ground penetrating radar (GPR): simulation analysis

This paper describes a simulation of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) nondestructive method at frequency range of 1.7-2.6 GHz to predict density for various road pavement samples. The method used is very simple, fast, contactless and accurate way to determine the density of road pavement. In this work we used frequency range between 1.7-2.6 GHz due to the high penetration in road pavement. The MATLAB software is used to analyze the simulation data and also for the graphs comparisons. An instantaneous method for measuring the density of road pavement was developed by using microwave transmission/reflection technique and free space method at the chosen frequency. The GPR Mixture Model was used to predict the correlation between the attenuation to the parameters related such as effective permittivity, density and thickness

Field test validation of optimized ground penetrating radar (GPR) mixture model at frequency range 1.7 GHz to 2.6 GHz

This paper presents the validation of optimized GPR mixture model based on the microwave nondestructive free space method in order to determine the density of road pavement. Density is an important parameter to determine the compressive strength of road pavement for road user safety. The attenuation is a major factor for gathering the density of road pavement predictly. A few of measured attenuation were taken at nine road pavement slab samples in laboratory. The GPR mixture model has been used to produce the simulation data to predict the attenuation. The comparison results between measurement and simulation were investigated. The best performance of GPR mixture model was selected in the optimization technique due to the smallest mean error. An improved attenuation formula or optimized GPR model was obtained from the optimization technique. The validation at field test had been conducted in order to see the performance of optimized GPR model

Optimization of ground penetrating radar (GPR) mixture model in road pavement density data analysis

This paper presents an optimization of GPR mixture model based on the measurements and simulation results at frequency range of 1.7-2.6 GHz. The purpose is to get a most accurate relationship between attenuation and density for various road pavements densities. The proposed method is simple, fast, nondestructive and accurate way to determine the density of road pavement. Density is a one of the important parameter in order to determine the compressive strength of road pavement. In laboratory, a few of received signal strength and measured attenuation for nine road pavement slab samples were taken at four different frequencies. The GPR mixture model has been used to produce the predicted attenuation due to the pavement density. The calculation and selection of mixture model has been discussed thoroughly and only the best performance of GPR mixture model was selected for optimization

Data analysis of road pavement density measurements using ground penetrating radar (GPR)

This work describes an analysis of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements at frequency range of 1.7-2.6 GHz to get a relationship between attenuation and density for nine road pavements slabs with different densities. There are about two different frequencies had been tried. The method is simple, fast, contact less and accurate way to determine the density of road pavement. The most important parameter that used in this project is density where it can be used to determine the compressive strength of road pavement. In laboratory, the measurement system consists of a signal generator (250 kHz-3GHz) as a source, spectrum analyzer (100Hz-8GHz), directional coupler with adapter and horn antenna. The first part of the measurement system setup is to determine the amplitude of transmitted wave (received signal strength). A few of received signal strength and attenuation for nine pavement slab samples were taken at two different frequencies. The GPR mixture model has been used to produce the simulation data and has been compared with measurement data. An instantaneous method for measuring the density of road pavement in wave propagation was developed by using microwave transmission/ reflection technique and free space method at two frequencies. The MATLAB software is used to analyze the measurement and simulation data and also for the graphs comparisons. The relative error between measurement and simulation were calculated. The results from the GPR measurement were used and were elaborated in data statistical analysis

Efficient radio resource allocation scheme for 5G networks with device-to-device communication

A vital technology in the next-generation cellular network is device-to-device (D2D) communication. Cellular user enabled with D2D communication provides high spectral efficiency and further increases the coverage area of the cell, especially for the end-cell users and blind spot areas. However, the implementation of D2D communication increases interference among the cellular and D2D users. In this paper, we proposed a radio resource allocation (RRA) algorithm to manage the interference using fractional frequency reuse (FFR) scheme and Hungarian algorithm. The proposed algorithm is divided into three parts. First, the FFR scheme allocates different frequency bands among the cell (inner and outer region) for both the cellular and the D2D users to reduce the interference. Second, the Hungarian weighted bipartite matching algorithm is used to allocate the resources to D2D users with the minimum total system interference, while maintaining the total system sum rate. The cellular users share the resources with more than one D2D pair. Lastly, the local search technique of swapping is used for further allocation to minimize the interference. We implemented two types of assignments, fair multiple assignment, and restricted multiple assignment. We compared our results with existing algorithms which verified that our proposed algorithm provides outstanding results in aspects like interference reduction and system sum rate. For restricted multiple assignment, 60-70% of the D2D users are allocated in average cases

A novel of suspended plate compact antenna design for 2.4 GHz applications

In wireless communication system, one of the unique challenges is the requirement for smaller and cheaper antenna design that becomes an important aspect in the deployment of wireless enabled products. To meet this challenge, we developed a simple, small, compact, low cost, and practical antenna targeted for 2.4 GHz (ISM Band) application. A detailed investigation on miniaturized microstrip planar new antenna design using a combination of proposed shorted patch and meandering method are presented. All design and simulations were done using Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) Momentum. To ensure the precision, verification has been done, designs were fabricated, and measurements on return loss and impedance bandwidth were performed by using FieldFox RF Analyzer. In realizing the design, a study on the surface current is conducted by simulation in order to maintain the target resonance frequency, 2.45 GHz. The designs have resulted in 86.5% and 95.5% size reduction, in comparison with a conventional rectangular patch antenna which is used as benchmark in this work. The performance of the proposed antenna is proven to be better than other existing miniaturization techniques such as the meandered line antenna (MLA) at the same size. Further improvement on radiation characteristic is also achieved by implementing Suspended Plate Antenna (SPA) approach. From the significant size reduction obtained, the concept used in this work would be suitable for cost centric products requiring small sized wireless module

IEEE VTS Asean Summer School

The IEEE Malaysia ComVT Joint Chapter organized the IEEE VTS ASEAN Summer School, which was held in conjunction with ATOM Project Workshop on 2–3 May 2019 at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Malaysia. The Summer School is a special project by IEEE VTS to increase the number of VTS members in the region, as well as to create a platform for the members to interact and exchange ideas, especially on research topics in vehicular technology

Path loss model optimization for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system in Malaysia

The study of this work is to develop an optimized path loss model for urban coverage in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system based on the existing models and empirical measurements. The Okumura’s model is chosen as a reference for optimized path loss model development based on the smallest mean relative error compared to the measured path loss. A new empirical model is developed from Okumura’s model and empirical measurements by regression fitting method. Okumura’s model will be optimized by using this new empirical model to achieve the smallest mean relative error. The optimized Okumura’s model is implemented in the path loss calculation during the validation process. It is found to be more accurate with up to 6.67% smaller mean relative error obtained. Thus, this optimized Okumura’s model is successfully improved and would be more reliable to be applied in the Malaysia CDMA system for urban path loss calculation