An Open-Source Archiving System

Establishment of a Web-based repository for wireless multipath channel measurement data would make it possible for the researchers to pool their datasets to yield more reliable or broadly applicable results or to extract additional value from data that may have been collected for other purposes. It would also allow the validity of models derived from certain data sets to be more easily tested against other data sets than at present. Moreover, ongoing developments in Web technologies will greatly add to the capabilities of such repositories in the coming years. While the wireless community would greatly benefit from the establishment of such a repository for channel measurement data, account must be taken of the significant differences between wireless channel-response data and data collected in other scientific fields. A particu ar challenge is to ensure that essential details concerning the measurement equipment used to collect the data, the manner in which the equipment was calibrated and verified, the data collection procedure, and details of the environment in which the data were collected are adequately documented and linked to the channel response data. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the return from such a wireless channel-response data repository would justify the effort required to set up and maintain it.