Fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are expected to play an increasing role in industrial communication with private mobile communication networks deployed on company premises. For planning, standardization and product development, it is crucial to to thoroughly understand the radio channel characteristics of such environments. Frequencies around 3.7 GHz were already reserved by regulation authorities and to meet the increasing demand for higher bandwidths, spectrum in the millimeter wave range around 28 GHz is targeted. This paper presents a wideband channel measurement campaign at both 3.7 and 28 GHz with direction-of-arrival information at 28 GHz. The results are compared to the 3GPP TR 38.901 Indoor Factory model and to two other recent papers. Evaluation of path loss and RMS delay and angle spread show the unique nature of industrial indoor environments.
In the upcoming 5G communication, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology will play an important role due to its large bandwidth and high data rate. However, mmWave frequencies have higher free-space path loss (FSPL) in line-of-sight (LOS) propagation compared to the currently used sub-6 GHz frequencies. What is more, in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation, the attenuation of mmWave is larger compared to the lower frequencies, which can seriously degrade the performance. It is therefore necessary to investigate mmWave propagation characteristics for a given deployment scenario to understand c…
One of the critical challenges of operating with the terahertz or millimeter-wave wireless networks is the necessity of at least a strong non-line-of-sight (NLoS) reflected path to form a stable link. Recent studies have shown that an economical way of enhancing/improving these NLoS links is by using passive metallic reflectors that provide strong reflections. However, despite its inherent radio advantage, metals can dramatically influence the landscape's appearance - especially the indoor environment. A conceptual view of escaping this is by using transparent reflectors. In this work, for the…
In this paper, we present millimeter-wave (mmWave) penetration loss measurements and analysis at E-bands-73 GHz and 81 GHz. Penetration loss was measured for common building materials such as clear glass, metal, tinted glass, wood, and drywall on the campus of Boise State University in the city of Boise. A horn antenna with a gain of 24 dBi was used at the transmitter and receiver at both bands, and both antennas were boresight-aligned with respect to the test material. A total of twelve locations were selected to test five materials. We tested two indoor materials (clear glass and wood) in at…
In the US, people spend 87% of their time indoors and have an average of four connected devices per person (in 2020). As such, providing indoor coverage has always been a challenge but becomes even more difficult as carrier frequencies increase to mmWave and beyond. This paper investigates the outdoor and outdoor-indoor coverage of an urban network comparing globally standardized building penetration models and implementing models to corresponding scenarios. The glass used in windows of buildings in the grid plays a pivotal role in determining the outdoor-to-indoor propagation loss. For 28 GHz…
This paper presents selected results from a channel measurement campaign conducted in a shopping mall scenario at 158 GHz. The focus is on the statistical analysis of the collected measurement data in terms of directional channel gain. Although most power is received from the line-of-sight (LOS) direction, significant multipaths arrive from all measured azimuth directions. The median of the sorted directional channel gain can be approximated by a linear curve showing an offset of about 10 dB with respect to the LOS direction.
In this paper, two large-scale fading path loss models are presented based on indoor and outdoor channel measurements at 73 GHz. The line-of-sight millimeter-wave propagation measurement campaigns were uniquely conducted within the indoor and outdoor environments at an airport setting, i.e., the Boise Airport. The channel measurements were made with directional transmit and receive antennas with a 24 dBi gain at different receive antenna heights. From the measured data, we obtained the parameters of two path loss models, i.e., the close-in reference distance model (CIM) and the floating-interc…
The use of above-100 GHz radio frequencies would be one of promising approaches to enhance the fifth-generation cellular further. Any air interface and cellular network designs require channel models, for which measured evidence of largescale parameters such as pathloss, delay and angular spreads, is crucial. This paper provides the evidence from quasi-static spatiotemporal channel sounding campaigns at two indoor hotspot (InH) scenarios at 140 GHz band, assuming short-range backhaul connectivity. The measured two InH sites are shopping mall and airport check-in hall. Our estimated omni-direct…
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) spectrum can support significantly higher data rates compared to lower frequency bands and hence are being actively considered for 5G wireless networks and beyond. These bands have high free-space path loss (FSPL) in line-of-sight (LOS) propagation due to their shorter wavelength. Moreover, in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario, these two bands suffer higher penetration loss than lower frequency bands which could seriously affect the network coverage. It is therefore critical to study the NLOS penetration loss introduced by different building materia…
This work presents an experimental study of Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) channel performance in indoor radio propagation environment. Indoor channel measurements at 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band have been performed using a versatile channel sounder testbed platform. A single transmitting antenna, four receiving antennas with two proposed geometries and a four-branch receiver circuitry were used in order to achieve channel sounder measurements exploiting baseband signal processing techniques. Deep investigation on SIMO wireless channel performance was realized through three types of metrics…
Providing reliable low latency wireless links for advanced manufacturing and processing systems is a vision of Industry 4.0. Developing, testing and rating requires accurate models of the radio propagation channel. The current 3GPP-NR model as well as the QuaDRiGa model lack the propagation parameters for the industrial indoor scenario. To close this gap, measurements were conducted at 2.37 GHz and 5.4 GHz at operational Siemens premises in Nuremberg, Germany. Furthermore, the campaign was planned to allow the test and parameterization of new features of the QuaDRiGa channel model such as supp…
In the current development of new technologies, the world of communications is experiencing significant growth thanks to the integration of wireless communications in millimeter band. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution that the use of a metallic reflector panel can introduce to indoor radio coverage at 60 GHz in an NLOS (corridor) configuration. The results obtained by measurement show that the use of such a panel can lead to a significant path loss reduction up to 12 dB, which improves the reception power.
With the expected adoption of millimeter wave technologies for industrial communication, it is fundamentally important to properly understand the radio channel characteristics of such environments. This paper presents the setup, scenario and results of a measurement campaign at 28 GHz in a machine hall. The radio channel was measured with a bandwidth of 2 GHz and both large scale parameters and directional information were extracted. Evaluation of the power delay profiles shows that the channel contains dense multipath components. A path loss model is parameterized and blockage losses, RMS del…
This paper proposes a three-dimensional (3D) communication channel model for an indoor environment considering the effect of the Hypersurface. The Hypersurface is a software controlled intelligent metasurface, which can be used to manipulate electromagnetic waves, as for example for non-specular reflection and full absorption. Thus it can control the impinging rays from a transmitter towards a receiver location in both LOS and NLOS paths, e.g. to combat distance and improve wireless connectivity. We focus on the 60 GHz mmWave frequency band due to its increasing significance in 5G/6G networks …
This paper provides indoor reflection, scattering, transmission, and large-scale path loss measurements and models, which describe the main propagation mechanisms at millimeter wave and Terahertz frequencies. Channel properties for common building materials (drywall and clear glass) are carefully studied at 28, 73, and 140 GHz using a wideband sliding correlation based channel sounder system with rotatable narrow-beam horn antennas. Reflection coefficient is shown to linearly increase as the incident angle increases, and lower reflection loss (e.g., stronger reflections) are observed as freque…
The Sixth Generation (6G) of mobile networks is expected to use carrier frequencies in the spectrum above 100 GHz, to satisfy the demands for higher data rates and bandwidth of future digital applications. The development of networking solutions at such high frequencies is challenged by the harsh propagation environment, and by the need for directional communications and signal processing at high data rates. A fundamental step in defining and developing wireless networks above 100 GHz is given by an accurate performance evaluation. For simulations, this strongly depends on the accuracy of the …
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and Terahertz (THz) will be used in the sixth-generation (6G) wireless systems, especially for indoor scenarios. This paper presents an indoor three-dimensional (3-D) statistical channel model for mmWave and sub-THz frequencies, which is developed from extensive channel propagation measurements conducted in an office building at 28 GHz and 140 GHz in 2014 and 2019. Over 15,000 power delay profiles (PDPs) were recorded to study channel statistics such as the number of time clusters, cluster delays, and cluster powers. All the parameters required in the channel generatio…
Indoor positioning is currently recognized as one of the important features in emergency, commercial and industrial applications. The 5G network enhances mobility, flexibility, reliability, and security to new higher levels which greatly benefit the IoT and industrial applications. Industrial IoT (IIoT) use-cases are characterized by ambitious system requirements for positioning accuracy in many verticals. For example, on the factory floor, it is important to locate assets and moving objects such as forklifts. The deployment design for different IIoT environments has a significant impact on th…
In this paper, we conduct wireless channel measurements in indoor corridor scenarios at 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands with bandwidth of 320 MHz. The measurement results of channel characteristics at different frequency bands such as average power delay profile (APDP), path loss (PL), delay spread (DS), and Ricean K factor (KF) are presented and analyzed. It is found that the PL exponent (PLE) and PL offset βin the floating-intercept (FI) model tend to increase with the increase of frequency. The DS and KF values of the three frequency bands in line of sight (LOS) scenario are basically the same. Thes…
The available geometry-based stochastic channel models (GSCMs) at millimetre-wave (mmWave) frequencies do not necessarily retain spatial consistency for simulated channels, which is essential for small cells with ultra-dense users. In this paper, we work on cluster parameterization for the COST 2100 channel model using mobile channel simulations at 61 GHz in Helsinki Airport. The paper considers a ray-tracer which has been optimized to match measurements, to obtain double-directional channels at mmWave frequencies. A joint clustering-tracking framework is used to determine cluster parameters f…
Point Data for Site-Specific Mid-band Radio Propagation Channel Statistics in the Indoor Hotspot (InH) Environment for 3GPP and Next Generation Alliance (NGA) Channel Modeling
Outdoor-to-indoor (OtI) signal propagation further challenges the already tight link budgets at millimeter-wave (mmWave). To gain insight into OtI mmWave scenarios at 28 GHz, we conducted an extensive measurement campaign consisting of over 2,200 link measurements. In total, 43 OtI scenarios were measured in West Harlem, New York City, covering seven highly diverse buildings. The measured OtI path gain can vary by up to 40 dB for a given link distance, and the empirical path gain model for all data shows an average of 30 dB excess loss over free space at distances beyond 50 m, with an RMS fitt…
The increasing demand for ultra-high throughput in ultra-dense networks might take a toll on 5G capacity. Moreover, with Internet-of-Things (IoT) and the growing use-cases for indoor killer-applications, it will be necessary to look beyond 5G technologies. One such promising technology is to move higher in the frequencies, such as the THz ($300$ $GHz$-$10$ $THz$) spectrum. THz has a massive number of greenfield-contiguous channels ranging from $10$ $GHz$ to $200$ $GHz$ (best case), which was not available in the traditional radio frequency (RF) or millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. Although THz h…
This paper presents a multi-bit reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) with a high phase resolution, capable of beam-steering in the azimuthal plane at sub-6 Gigahertz (GHz). Field trials in realistic indoor deployments have been carried out, with coverage enhancement performance ascertained for three common wireless communication scenarios. Namely, serving users in an open lobby with mixed line of sight and non-line of sight conditions, communication via a junction between long corridors, and a multi-floor scenario with propagation via windows. This work explores the potential for reconfigu…
Industrial automation is one of the key application scenarios of the fifth (5G) wireless communication network. The high requirements of industrial communication systems for latency and reliability lead to the need for industrial channel models to support massive multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) and millimeter wave communication. In addition, due to the complex environment, huge communication equipment, and numerous metal scatterers, industrial channels have special rich dense multipath components (DMCs). Considering these characteristics, a novel three dimensional (3D) non-stationary geom…
Physical-layer security (PLS) for industrial indoor terahertz (THz) wireless communication applications is considered. We use a similar model as being employed for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) wireless communication channels. A cell communication and a directed communication scenario are analyzed to illustrate the achievable semantic security guarantees for a wiretap channel with finite-blocklength THz-wireless communication links. We show that weakly directed transmitter (Alice) antennas, which allow cell-type communication with multiple legitimate receivers (Bobs) without adaptation …
A Hybrid Near-field Indoor Channel Model for THz Bands Based on Surface Scattering Characteristics
National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University（东南大学信息科学与工程学院国家移动通信实验室）；Purple Mountain Laboratories（紫金山实验室）
Aalborg University（奥尔堡大学）；Norwegian University of Science and Technology（挪威科技大学）
One of the beyond-5G developments that is often highlighted is the integration of wireless communication and radio sensing. This paper addresses the potential of communication-sensing integration of Large Intelligent Surfaces (LIS) in an exemplary Industry 4.0 scenario. Besides the potential for high throughput and efficient multiplexing of wireless links, an LIS can offer a high-resolution rendering of the propagation environment. This is because, in an indoor setting, it can be placed in proximity to the sensed phenomena, while the high resolution is offered by densely spaced tiny antennas d…
Today, cellular networks have saturated frequencies below 3\,GHz. Because of increasing capacity requirements, 5th generation (5G) mobile networks target the 3.5\,GHz band (3.4 to 3.8\,GHz). Despite its expected wide usage, there is little empirical path loss data and mobile radio network planning experience for the 3.5\,GHz band available. This paper presents the results of rural, suburban, and urban measurement campaigns using a pre-standard 5G prototype testbed operating at 3.5\,GHz, with outdoor as well as outdoor-to-indoor scenarios. Based on the measurement results, path loss models are …
A physics assisted deep learning framework to perform accurate indoor imaging using phaseless Wi-Fi measurements is proposed. It is able to image objects that are large (compared to wavelength) and have high permittivity values, that existing radio frequency (RF) inverse scattering techniques find very challenging, making it suitable for indoor RF imaging. The technique utilizes a Rytov based inverse scattering model with a deep learning framework. The inverse scattering model is based on an extended Rytov approximation (xRA) that pre-reconstructs the RF measurements. Under strong scattering c…
To fully exploit the millimeter-wave bands for the fifth generation cellular systems, an accurate understanding of the channel propagation characteristics is required, and hence extensive measurement campaigns in different environments are needed. In this paper, we use a rotated directional antenna-based channel sounder for measurements at 28 GHz in large indoor environments at a library setting. We present models for power angular-delay profile and large-scale path loss based on the measurements over distances ranging from 10 m to 50 m. In total, nineteen different line-of-sight (LOS) and non…
