Optical OFDM Error Floor Estimation by Means of OTDR Enhanced by Front-End Optical Preamplifier

Optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) enables simple identification and localization of a plethora of refractive and reflective events on a fiber link, including splices, connectors and breaks, and measuring insertion/return loss. Specifically, large enough OTDR dynamic range (DR) and thus high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) enable clear far-end visibility of longer fibers. We point out here that, under such conditions, the optical bit-error-rate (BER) floor is dominantly determined by reflective events that introduce significant return loss. This complements the OTDR legacy tests by appropriate optical BER floor estimation in the field. As high SNR implies inter-symbol interference as dominating error generating mechanism, we could apply the classical time-dispersion channel model for the optical BER floor determined by the root-mean-square (rms) delay spread of the actual fiber channel power-delay profile. However, as the high-SNR condition is not always fulfilled mostly due to insufficient DR, we propose here inserting a low-noise optical preamplifier as the OTDR front-end to reduce noise floor and amplify the backscattered signal. In order to verify the model for the exemplar test situation, we measured BER on the same fiber link to find very good matching between the measured BER floor values and the ones predicted from the OTDR trace.

Analysis of Propagation Characteristics for Various Subway Tunnel Scenarios at 28 GHz

In order to meet the higher data transmission rate requirements of subway communication services, the millimeter wave (mmWave) broadband communication is considered as a potential solution in 5G technology. Based on the channel measurement data in subway tunnels, this paper uses ray-tracing (RT) simulation to predict the propagation characteristics of the 28 GHz millimeter wave frequency band in different tunnel scenarios. A large number of simulations based on ray-tracing software have been carried out for tunnel models with different bending radiuses and different slopes, and we further compared the simulation results with the real time measurement data of various subway tunnels. The large-scale and small-scale propagation characteristics of the channel, such as path loss (PL), root mean square delay spread (RMS-DS), and angle spread (AS), for different tunnel scenarios are analyzed, and it was found that the tunnel with a greater slope causes larger path loss and root mean square delay spread. Furthermore, in the curved tunnel, the angle spread of the azimuth angle is larger than that in a straight tunnel. The proposed results can provide a reference for the design of future 5G communication systems in subway tunnels.

Tripolarizated MIMO: Experimental Analysis and Modeling of Channel Properties in Both Indoor and Outdoor Scenarios

The tripolarized MIMO system can provide one more degree of freedom and have a more compacted size over a dual-polarized MIMO system, which is attractive for high-capacity wireless communication systems. In this paper, we analyze and model channel properties for tripolarized MIMO systems based on experimental channel measurements in typical indoor and outdoor scenarios. Firstly, channel measurement campaigns in the laboratory and the Urban Micro (UMi) scenarios on sub-6 GHz bands are presented. Then, based on measured data, path loss, delay spread (DS), and cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) for 9 polarization combinations are analyzed and modeled in a statistical way. Statistical results of these channel properties are also given. It is observed that channel properties of both large-scale fading and small-scale fading depend strongly on the polarization direction. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of tripolarized MIMO systems by analyzing the Demmel condition number and channel capacity gain (CG). For both the indoor and the outdoor scenarios, it is found that colocated tripolarized antenna can bring a nearly threefold CG with respect to the unipolarized one. These results can give good insights into the design and evaluation of tripolarized MIMO systems.

An Optimized Approach to Channel Modeling and Impact of Deteriorating Factors on Wireless Communication in Underground Mines

The environment of underground coal mines has challenging properties that makes this zone inadaptable for a stable communication system. Additionally, various deteriorating physical parameters strongly affect the performance of wireless networks, which leads to limited network coverage and poor quality of data communication. This study investigates the communication capability in underground coal mines by optimizing the wireless link to develop a stable network for an underground hazardous environment. A hybrid channel-modeling scheme is proposed to characterize the environment of underground mines for wireless communication by classifying the area of a mine into the main gallery and sub-galleries. The complex segments of mine are evaluated by categorizing the wireless links for the line-of-sight (LOS) zones and hybrid modeling is employed to examine the characteristics of electromagnetic signal propagation. For hybrid channel modeling, the multimode waveguide model and geometrical optic (GO) model are used for developing an optimal framework that improves the accessibility of the network in the critical time-varying environment of mines. Moreover, the influence of various deteriorating factors is analyzed using 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz frequency band to study its relationship with the vital constraints of an underground mine. The critical factors such as path loss, roughness loss, delay spread, and shadow fading are examined under detailed analysis with variation in link structure for the mine.

Design and Analysis of Different Optical Attocells Deployment Models for Indoor Visible Light Communication System

Visible light communication (VLC) is a promising candidate that is expected to revolutionize indoor environment communications performance and fulfill fifth generation and beyond (5GB) technologies requirements. It offers high and free bandwidth, electromagnetic interference immunity, low-cost front end and low power consumption. Also, VLC has dual functions that could be utilized in both illumination and communication concurrently. The number of optical attocells (OAs) and their deployment in the room represent the main issue that should be taken into consideration in designing an optimal VLC system. In this paper, we have introduced a new model of five OAs in the typical room. In addition to an investigation of various optical attocells (OAs) deployment models, in which a multi-variable evaluation was performed in terms of received power, illumination, SNR and RMS delay spread in order to determine the optimal OAs model. Also, various modulation schemes performances were investigated which included NRZ-OOK, BPSK, and QPSK in order to improve the BER performance. Results indicated that BPSK modulation had superior BER performance when compared with all OAs models. Further, a comprehensive results analysis and comparison of all proposed models was conducted over various parameters, in which our new proposed OAs model achieved an optimal performance in comparison with the other models.

Statistical Analysis of 5G Channel Propagation using MIMO and Massive MIMO Technologies

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and massive MIMO technologies play a significant role in mitigating five generation (5G) channel propagation impairments. These impairments increase as frequency increases, and they become worse at millimeter-waves (mmWaves). They include difficulties of material penetration, Line-of-Sight (LoS) inflexibility, small cell coverage, weather circumstances, etc. This paper simulates the 5G channel at the E-band frequency using the Monte Carlo approach-based NYUSIM tool. The urban microcell (UMi) is the communication environment of this simulation. Both MIMO and massive MIMO use uniformly spaced rectangular antenna arrays (URA). This study investigates the effects of MIMO and massive MIMO on LOS and Non-LOS (NLOS) environments. The simulations considered directional and omnidirectional antennas, the Power Delay Profile (PDP), Root Mean Square (RMS) delay spread, and small-scale PDP for both LOS and NLOS environments. As expected, the wide variety of the results showed that the massive MIMO antenna outperforms the MIMO antenna, especially in terms of the signal power received at the end-user and for longer path lengths.

Directive mmWave radio channel modeling in a ship hull

Wireless connectivity has been realized for multiple environments and different frequency bands. However, little research exists about mmWave communication in industrial environments. This paper presents the 60 GHz double-directional radio channel for mmWave communication in a ship hull for Line-of-Sight (LOS) and non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) conditions. We performed channel measurements using the Terragraph channel sounder at different locations in the ship hull and fitted LOS path loss to a one-slope path loss model. Path loss and root-mean-square delay spread of the LOS path is compared to the reflected path with lowest path loss. NLOS communication via this first-order reflected path is modeled by calculating the path distance and determining the reflection loss. The reflection losses have a considerable contribution to the signal attenuation of the reflected path. The channel models are implemented in an indoor coverage prediction tool, which was extended with a ray launching algorithm and validated by comparison with an analytical electromagnetic solver. The results show that the mmWave radio channel allows high-throughput communication within a ship hull compartment, even when no LOS path between the transmitter and receiver is present.

Maritime Broadband Communication: Wireless Channel Measurement and Characteristic Analysis for Offshore Waters

For a long time, the development of maritime communication has been restricted by the low data rate, high-latency and high cost of the current communication systems. The upgrade of new generation mobile communication technologies is attracting more and more attention to conduct a shore-based broadband mobile communication network with high-latency and high reliability to serve the maritime industries. This paper presents a solution by means of building a ship-to-infrastructure (S2I) and a ship-to-ship (S2S) wireless communication networks for an offshore region. We characterize the S2I and S2S channels at 5.9 GHz band based on the channel measurements in realistic environments. The channel characteristics, including power delay profile, delay spread, propagation path loss, are extracted and analyzed. In view of the difference between marine and terrestrial communications, we analyze the influencing factors of the offshore water, including effective reflection, divergence and shadowing from the water surface, and diffraction loss caused by the earth curvature. We also predict the power coverage range and the channel capacity for S2I and S2S wireless communications. Finally, the communication performance is evaluated according to the channel measurement and characterization analysis. The research results can be a reference for the construction of maritime communication networks.