Excitation methods for magneto inductive waveguide communication systems

Cooperative communication has potential to provide range extension and enhanced data rate access in magnetic induction (MI) communication systems. In this paper we have proposed three methods for exciting the array of magnetically coupled cooperative nodes. They are array edge voltage excitation (AEE), array centre excitation (ACE) and collinear array excitation (CAE). While the first two relates more to peer-to-peer systems, the last method relates to magneto inductive waveguide. Our models and experiments with hardware nodes show that while AEE provides increased power at the array edge (node directly opposite the transmitter), it is out performed by ACE (transmitter directly opposite coil at the centre of array), which results to twice the power capture at the array centre node compared to the power captured at edge excited first element. Theoretical analysis and the experiment results of the three models are discussed in this paper.