A comparison of theoretical and empirical reflection coefficientsfor typical exterior wall surfaces in a mobile radio environment

This paper presents microwave reflection coefficient measurements at 1.9 GHz and 4.0 GHz for a variety of typical smooth and rough exterior building surfaces. The measured test surfaces include walls composed of limestone blocks, glass, and brick. Reflection coefficients were measured by resolving individual reflected signal components temporally and spatially, using a spread-spectrum sliding correlation system with directional antennas. Measured reflection coefficients are compared to theoretical Fresnel reflection coefficients, applying Gaussian rough surface scattering corrections where applicable. Comparisons of theoretical calculations and measured test cases reveal that Fresnel reflection coefficients adequately predict the reflective properties of the glass and brick wall surfaces. The rough limestone block wall reflection measurements are shown to be bounded by the predictions using the Fresnel reflection coefficients for a smooth surface and the modified reflection coefficients using the Gaussian rough surface correction factors. A simple, but effective, reflection model for rough surfaces is proposed, which is in good agreement with propagation measurements at 1.9 GHz and 4 GHz for both vertical and horizontal antenna polarizations. These reflection coefficient models can be directly applied to the estimation of multipath signal strength in ray tracing algorithms for propagation prediction     

Characterization of UHF multipath radio channels in factorybuildings

Wideband multipath measurements at 1300 MHz were made in five factory buildings in Indiana. Root-mean-square delay spread (σ) values were found to range between 30 and 300 ns. Median σ values were 96 ns for line-of-sight paths along aisleways and 105 ns for obstructed paths across aisles. Worst-case σ or 300 ns was measured in a modern open-plan metal-working factory. Delay spreads were not correlated with transmitter-receiver separation or factory topography but were affected by factory inventory, building construction materials, and wall locations. Wideband path loss measurements consistently agreed with continuous-wave measurements made at identical locations. It is shown that such empirical data suggest independent and identical uniform distributions on the phases of resolvable multipath signal components. Average factory path loss was found to be a function of distance to the 2.2 power     

Bit error simulation for π/4 DQPSK mobile radio communicationsusing two-ray and measurement-based impulse response models

An accurate software/hardware bit-by-bit error simulator for mobile radio communications is described. Simulation results in indoor and outdoor channels are compared with theoretical results. Bit error rate (BER) results in simulated frequency-selective fading channels generated by several channel models such as two-ray, constant amplitude, and simulated indoor radio channel impulse models (SIRCIMs) are presented. It is shown that BER is not only dependent on the RMS delay spread, but also on the distribution of temporal and spatial multipath components in local areas. An important result is that a two-ray Rayleigh fading model is a poor fit for indoor wireless channels and, if used, can underestimate the BER by orders of magnitude. A real-time bit error simulation of video transmission using the bit-by-bit error simulator is described. The simulator, called BERSIM, is shown to be a useful tool for evaluating emerging data transmission products for digital mobile communications     

Short-pulse three-dimensional scattering from moderately rough surfaces: a comparison between narrow-waisted Gaussian beam algorithms and FDTD

In this paper, with reference to short-pulse three-dimensional scattering from moderately rough surfaces, we present a comparison between Gabor-based narrow-waisted Gaussian beam (NW-GB) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithms. NW-GB algorithms have recently emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional (ray-optical) high-frequency/short-pulse approximate methods, whereas FDTD algorithms are well-established full-wave tools for electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering. After presentation of relevant background material, results are presented and discussed for realistic parameter configurations, involving dispersive soils and moderately rough surface profiles, of interest in pulsed ground penetrating radar applications. Results indicate a generally satisfying agreement between the two methods, which tends to improve for slightly dispersive soils. Computational aspects are also compared.     

Directional neighbor discovery in mmWave wireless networks

The directional neighbor discovery problem, i.e., spatial rendezvous, is a fundamental problem in millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless networks, where directional transmissions are used to overcome the high attenuation. The challenge is how to let the transmitter and the receiver beams meet in space under deafness caused by directional transmission and reception, where no control channel, prior information, and coordination are available. In this paper, we present a Hunting-based Directional Neighbor Discovery (HDND) scheme for ad hoc mmWave networks, where a node follows a unique sequence to determine its transmission or reception mode, and continuously rotates its directional beam to scan the neighborhood for other mmWave nodes. Through a rigorous analysis, we derive the conditions for ensured neighbor discovery, as well as a bound for the worst-case discovery time and the impact of sidelobes. We validate the analysis with extensive simulations and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme over several baseline schemes.     

FDTD simulation of TE and TM plane waves at nonzero incidence in arbitrary Layered media

Plane wave scattering is an important class of electromagnetic problems that is surprisingly difficult to model with the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method if the direction of propagation is not parallel to one of the grid axes. In particular, infinite plane wave interaction with dispersive half-spaces or layers must include careful modeling of the incident field. By using the plane wave solutions of Maxwell's equations to eliminate the transverse field dependence, a modified set of curl equations is derived which can model a "slice" of an oblique plane wave along grid axes. The resulting equations may be used as edge conditions on an FDTD grid. These edge conditions represent the only known way to accurately propagate plane wave pulses into a frequency dependent medium. An examination of grid dispersion between the plane wave and the modeled slice reveals good agreement. Application to arbitrary dispersive media is straightforward for the transverse magnetic (TM) case, but requires the use of an auxiliary equation for the transverse electric case, which increases complexity. In the latter case, a simplified approach, based on formulating the dual of the TM equations, is shown to be quite effective. The strength of the developed approach is illustrated with a comparison with the conventional simulation based on an analytic incident wave specification with half-space, single frequency reflection and transmission for the edges. Finally, an example of a possible biomedical application is given and the implementation of the method in the perfectly matched layer region is discussed.     

Three-dimensional subsurface analysis of electromagnetic scatteringfrom penetrable/PEC objects buried under rough surfaces: use of thesteepest descent fast multipole method

The electromagnetic scattering from a three-dimensional (3D) shallow object buried under a two-dimensional (2D) random rough dielectric surface is analyzed. The buried object can be a perfect electric conductor (PEC) or can be a penetrable dielectric with size and burial depth comparable to the free-space wavelength. The random rough ground surface is characterized with Gaussian statistics for surface height and for surface autocorrelation function. The Poggio, Miller, Chang, Harrington, and Wu (PMCHW) integral equations are implemented and extended. The integral equation-based steepest descent fast multipole method (SDFMM), that was originally developed at UIUC, has been used and the computer code based on this algorithm has been successfully modified to handle the current application. The significant potential of the SDFMM code is that it calculates the unknown moment method surface electric and magnetic currents on the scatterer in a dramatically fast, efficient, and accurate manner. Interactions between the rough surface interface and the buried object are fully taken into account with this new formulation. Ten incident Gaussian beams with the same elevation angle and different azimuth angles are generated for excitation as one possible way of having multiple views of a given target. The scattered electric fields due to these ten incident beams are calculated in the near zone and their complex vector average over the multiple views is computed. The target signature is obtained by subtracting the electric fields scattered from the rough ground only from those scattered from the ground with the hurled anti-personnel mine     

Cross-Well Radar. I: Experimental Simulation of Cross-Well Tomography and Validation

This paper explains and evaluates the potential and limitations of conducting cross-well radar (CWR) in sandy soils. Implementing the experiment and data collection in the absence of any scattering object, and in the presence of an acrylic plate [a representative of dielectric objects, such as dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) pools, etc.], as a contrasting object in a water-saturated soil is also studied. To be able to image the signature of any object, more than one pair of receiving and transmitting antennas are required. The paper describes a method to achieve repeatable, reliable, and reproducible laboratory results for different transmitter-receiver combinations. Different practical methods were evaluated for collecting multiple-depth data. Similarity of the corresponding results and problems involved in each method are studied and presented. The data show that the frequency response of a saturated coarse-grained soil is smooth due to the continuous and dominant nature of water in saturated soils. The repeatability and potential symmetry of patterns across some borehole axes provide a valuable tool for validation of experimental results. The potential asymmetry across other borehole axes is used as a tool to evaluate the strength of the perturbation on the electromagnetic field due to hidden objects and to evaluate the feasibility of detecting dielectric objects (such as DNAPL pools, etc.) using CWR. The experimental simulation of this paper models a real-life problem in a smaller scale, in a controlled laboratory environment, and within homogeneous soils that are uniformly dry or fully water saturated, with a uniform dielectric property contrast between the inclusion and background. The soil in the field will not be as homogeneous and uniform. The scaling process takes into consideration that as the size is scaled down; the frequency needs to be scaled up. It is noteworthy that this scaling process needs to be extensively studied and validated for future extension of the models to real-field applications. For example, to extend the outcome of this work to the real field, the geometry (antenna size, their separation and inclusion size) needs to be scaled up back to the field size, while soil grains will not. Therefore, soil, water, and air coupling effects and interactions observed at the laboratory scale do not scale up in the field, and may have different unforeseen effects that require extensive study.     

Treating cardiac disease with catheter-based tissue heating

Two applications of microwave internal biological heating are discussed. Both microwave assisted balloon angioplasty (MABA) and microwave cardiac ablation (MCA) consist of an antenna applicator fed by means of coaxial cable, which passes through a catheter. The antenna designs take advantage of polarization and phase effects of microwaves to create specific power deposition patterns. MABA with a helix and mode filter balloon uses the large differences in the dielectric characteristics of high water content (HWC) and low water content (LWC) tissue to preferentially heat and weld plaque while sparing healthy artery walls. Wide aperture MCA uses an unfurlable spiral antenna within a balloon to generate a deep large ablation volume in diseased cardiac tissue. Theoretical studies have been validated with a variety of in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. There is less of a potential for tissue-surface charring with microwaves than with RF ablation. Live animal studies indicate that MCA is well tolerated by animals