Measurement and characterization of indoor ultra-wideband propagation

The propagation of ultra-wideband (UWB) signals in indoor environments is an important issue with significant impacts on the future direction and scope of the UWB technology and its applications. The objective of this article is to present an assessment of the potentials of UWB indoor communications by characterizing UWB indoor channels. The channel characterization refers to extracting the channel parameters from measured propagation data. An indoor UWB measurement campaign is undertaken. Time-domain indoor propagation measurements using pulses with FWHM equal to 85 ps are carried out. Typical indoor scenarios, including line-of-sight (LOS), non-line-of-sight (NLOS), room-to-room, within-the-room, and hallways are considered. Results of indoor propagation measurements are presented for local power delay profiles (local PDP) and small-scale averaged power delay profiles (SSA-PDP). Site-specific trends and general observations are discussed. The results for path-loss exponent and time dispersion parameters are presented.