Characterizing the UAV-to-Machine UWB Radio Channel in Smart Factories

In this work, the results of Ultra-Wideband air-to-ground measurements carried out in a real-world factory environment are presented and discussed. With intelligent industrial deployments in mind, we envision a scenario where the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can be used as a supplementary tool for factory operation, optimization and control. Measurements address narrow band and wide band characterization of the wireless radio channel, and can be used for link budget calculation, interference studies and time dispersion assessment in real factories, without the usual limitation for both radio terminals to be close to ground. The measurements are performed at different locations and different heights over the 3.1-5.3 GHz band. Some fundamental propagation parameters values are determined vs. distance, height and propagation conditions. The measurements are complemented with, and compared to, conventional ground-to-ground measurements with the same setup. The conducted measurement campaign gives an insight for realizing wireless applications in smart connected factories, including UAV-assisted applications

Ultra-wide bandwidth systems for the surveillance of railway crossing Areas

Level crossings are critical elements of railway networks where a large number of accidents take place every year. With the recent enforcement of new and higher safety standards for railway transportation systems, dedicated and reliable technologies for level crossing surveillance must be introduced in order to comply with the safety requirements. In this survey the worldwide problem of level crossing surveillance is addressed, with particular attention to the recent European safety regulations. In this context, the capability of detecting, localizing, and discriminating the vehicle/obstacle that might be entrapped in a level crossing area is considered of paramount importance to save lives, and at the same time avoid costly false alarms. In this article the main solutions available today are illustrated and their pros and cons discussed. In particular, the recent ultra-wide bandwidth technology, combined with proper signal processing and backhauling over the already deployed optical fiber backbone, is shown to represent a promising solution for safety improvement in level crossings

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

Item level characterization of mm-wave indoor propagation

According to the current prospect of allocating next generation wireless systems in the underutilized millimeter frequency bands, a thorough characterization of mm-wave propagation represents a pressing necessity. In this work, an “item level” characterization of radiowave propagation at 70 GHz is carried out. The scattering properties of several, different objects commonly present in indoor environment are investigated by means of measurements carried out in an anechoic chamber. The measured data have been also exploited to tune some parameters of a 3D ray tracing model