Optimum access-point constellation for indoor time difference of arrival positioning. - In: 2023 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), (2023), S. 1234-1240
The availability of ubiquitous location services is a highly desirable feature for many upcoming applications in the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT), including asset tracking, navigation services especially in indoor environments such as shopping centers, or emergency people tracking in schools, hospitals, and prisons. While outdoor positioning is perfectly covered by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), indoor positioning services, except for a few pioneer projects, did not hit the mainstream yet. At first, this is surprising, as the underlying technology has been known for years and solutions already exist based on WiFi or Bluetooth beacons. A major problem is, that the locations of those beacons need to be highly tailored to the specific indoor floorplan for high positioning accuracies, which directly contradicts the need for a cheap installment. Picking up this challenge, we present a methodology for fast optimization of access point locations in indoor environments, maximizing coverage and positioning accuracy that will facilitate a broad deployment of indoor positioning systems.
https://doi.org/10.1109/PLANS53410.2023.10140137
Efficient phased array radiation pattern evaluation for 5G and SatCom On-The-Move (SOTM) applications. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
In satellite communications, it is becoming challenging to provide the tracking performance which is required for Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) constellations with the traditional Satellite Communications (SatCom) On The Move (SOTM) terminal structure which employs bulky parabolic antennas. On the other hand, in terrestrial networks, the single omnidirectional communication with User Equipment (UE) does not provide enough throughput to fulfill the need for higher speed connections. As a consequence, manufacturers started to invest in developing new terminals which use phased array antennas to enable beamforming to increase the directivity and null the interference in terrestrial networks and to provide rapid tracking performance as well as seamless handovers in SOTM. However, this generates new challenge as these antennas change beam patterns depending on the beam steering angle. It is not trivial to evaluate the performance of beamforming antennas since the measurement of the high number of beam patterns that the phased array can form in all directions is time consuming. In this paper, we propose a methodology to measure a large number of beam patterns of a phased array antenna in a more time efficient approach compared to traditional antenna measurement methods. The measured patterns can be used to evaluate the antenna performance and capabilities in different conditions and verify the terminal ability to fulfill the requirements specified by the standards.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10132956
Receiver bandwidth extension beyond Nyquist using channel bonding. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
Current and upcoming communication and sensing technologies require ever larger bandwidths. Channel bonding can be utilized to extend a receiver’s instantaneous bandwidth beyond a single converter’s Nyquist limit. Two potential joint front-end and converter design approaches are theoretically introduced, realized and evaluated in this paper. The Xilinx RFSoC platform with its 5 GSa/s analog to digital converters (ADCs) is used to implement both a hybrid coupler based in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) sampling and a time-interleaved sampling approach along with channel bonding. Both realizations are demonstrated to be able to reconstruct instantaneous bandwidths of 5 GHz with up to 49 dB image rejection ratio (IRR) typically within 4 to 8 dB the front-ends’ theoretical limits.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133262
Measurement testbed for radar and emitter localization of UAV at 3.75 GHz. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
This paper presents an experimental measurement platform for the research and development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) localization algorithms using radio emission and reflectivity. We propose a cost-effective, flexible testbed made from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices to allow academic research regarding the upcoming integration of UAV surveillance in existing mobile radio networks in terms of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC). The system enables nanosecond-level synchronization accuracy and centimeter-level positioning accuracy for multiple distributed sensor nodes and a mobile UAV-mounted node. Results from a real-world measurement in a 16 km^2 urban area demonstrate the system’s performance with both emitter localization as well as with the radar setup.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133118
Spatial/temporal characterization of propagation and blockage from measurements at sub-THz in industrial machines. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
In the present paper we introduce novel ultra-wideband (UWB) dual-polarized double-directional measurements at sub-THz (300 GHz) in an access point to inside of machine application in an industrial scenario. The results show a sparse spatial/temporal channel with multiple paths from the different metallic objects and their influence on polarization. In addition, different LOS blockage situations were investigated, showing the presence of alternative paths for communications.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133323
Measurement-based analysis of multi-band assisted beam-forming at mmWave in industrial scenarios. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
The mmWave and sub-THz bands are foreseen as candidates to achieve the data-rate demands in the beyond 5G and 6G wireless communication networks. The co-existence of multiple radio interfaces at several bands enables data fusion and the utilization of the similarities and differences on propagation and system properties for communication and sensing applications. MmWave radio interfaces rely on directive beams that require high training overhead for beam steering. Sensors in the network infrastructure and co-located radio interfaces at sub-6 GHz and mmWave can be used to assist the beam-forming process at mmWave. In the present paper we investigate the performance of multi-band assisted beam-forming in an industrial environment. We empirically demonstrate from real-world measurements that even in NLOS, the direction of the beams estimated at sub-6 GHz can be used to established a link at mmWave.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133694
Reduction of mutual coupling between dual-polarized antenna elements using defected ground structures. - In: 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2023), (2023), insges. 5 S.
To accurately model a communication channel using channel sounding technique, having dual-polarized antenna elements and low mutual coupling between them is required. In this work a Defected Ground Structure (DGS) is proposed to reduce the mutual coupling between two dual polarized mmWave antenna elements in an array structure. The defected ground is made of etched C-shape slots. The presence of the DGS has a strong impact on H-plane coupling where a suppression of 35 dB is achieved, while the reduction of E-plane coupling is about 4 dB. The unwanted effect on the radiation patterns is negligible and the back radiation is not increased.
https://doi.org/10.23919/EuCAP57121.2023.10133636
Multi-environment based meta-learning with CSI fingerprints for radio based positioning. - In: 2023 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), (2023), insges. 6 S.
Radio based positioning of a user equipment (UE) based on deep learning (DL) methods using channel state information (CSI) fingerprints have shown promising results. DL models are able to capture complex properties embedded in the CSI about a particular environment and map UE’s CSI to the UE’s position. However, the CSI fingerprints and the DL models trained on such fingerprints are highly dependent on a particular propagation environment, which generally limits the transfer of knowledge of the DL models from one environment to another. In this paper, we propose a DL model consisting of two parts: the first part aims to learn environment independent features while the second part combines those features depending on the particular environment. To improve transfer learning, we propose a meta learning scheme for training the first part over multiple environments. We show that for positioning in a new environment, initializing a DL model with the meta learned environment independent function achieves higher UE positioning accuracy compared to regular transfer learning from one environment to the new environment, or compared to training the DL model from scratch with only fingerprints from the new environment. Our proposed scheme is able to create an environment independent function which can embed knowledge from multiple environments and more effectively learn from a new environment.
https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC55385.2023.10118753
Framework for simulation models and algorithms in ISAC networks. - In: 2023 IEEE 3rd International Symposium on Joint Communications & Sensing (JC & S), (2023), insges. 6 S.
In Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC), radar and communications functionalities share the same radio channel and radio resources. This sharing allows the deployment of both functionalities at a low cost without additional frequency bands and infrastructure. Because radar and communications have different radio resource requirements, new radio access and radio resource management (RRM) methods are required in a shared system. To develop and evaluate new ISAC methods, this paper presents a modular simulation framework for the system level and link level of ISAC networks. The main components of the framework are the data storage, the simulators, and the algorithms. This paper presents the framework's architecture, the integrated simulation models for channel and signal simulation, and the integrated algorithms for multiple radar target localization and data transmission.
https://doi.org/10.1109/JCS57290.2023.10107507
Fill level measurements using an M-sequence UWB radar. - In: International journal of microwave and wireless technologies, ISSN 1759-0795, Bd. 15 (2023), 1, S. 74-81
Due to increasingly complex and automated manufacturing processes, the demands on the control parameters of these processes are also increasing. In many applications, such a parameter is the fill quantity, whose precise determination is of ever growing importance. This paper shows with which accuracy and precision an M-sequence ultra-wideband radar can determine levels in small metallic and non-metallic containers with contact-based and contactless measurements. First, the principle of level measurement using guided wave radar is explained and the measurement setup is described. Afterward, the measurement results are shown and discussed. The measurements show that the level can be measured with an accuracy of better than 0.5 mm. In addition, level fluctuations can be detected with a precision of 3 μm. Based on the results of the guided wave radar, the possibilities of volumetric contactless measurement using an electrically small patch antenna are discussed. A particular challenge in contactless level measurement is the high number of multipath components, which strongly influence the accuracy. In addition, there are near-field effects when measuring close to the antenna. Exploiting these near-field effects, an additional method to accurately determine the full state of the container is investigated.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1759078722000502