Open AccessMultiple‐input multiple‐output beam‐space for high‐speed wireless communication in underground mine
Author(s) -
Ghaddar Mohamad,
Nedil Mourad,
Ben Mabrouk Ismail,
Talbi Larbi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
iet microwaves, antennas and propagation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.555
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1751-8733
pISSN - 1751-8725
DOI - 10.1049/iet-map.2014.0464
Subject(s) - non line of sight propagation , mimo , electronic engineering , channel capacity , spatial multiplexing , 3g mimo , path loss , wireless , fading , computer science , communications system , channel (broadcasting) , engineering , topology (electrical circuits) , telecommunications , electrical engineering
This study presents a new low‐cost multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) beam‐pace technique to increase the overall link capacity of wireless MIMO communications systems in scatter‐rich underground mines. This technique is based on generating multiple orthogonal beams for data spatial multiplexing using conformal cylindrical‐shape patch arrays. Hence, this study is intended to reveal interests towards the use of conformal MIMO systems for underground mine communications. Two separate 4 × 4 MIMO measurement campaigns are performed and then investigated in a comparative way; the first uses conformal microstrip patch arrays (CMPA), while the second uses conventional planar microstrip patch arrays (PMPA). Based on sweeping‐frequency technique (2.35–2.55) GHz, the channel performance is characterised in terms of path loss, fading distribution, capacity and RMS time dispersion parameters. Whether under a line of sight (LOS) or a non‐LOS (NLOS) condition, the extracted results confirm the performance priority of CMPA for underground mines communications as they further enhance the propagation characteristics and the capacity gain of the channel; under NLOS, a maximal capacity of 12.95 bits/s/Hz is achieved compared to 9.6 bits/s/Hz obtained using PMPA. For LOS and NLOS cases, maximal capacity boosts of up to 0.43 and 3.35 bits/s/Hz are achieved over PMPA, respectively.