This study investigates the improvement of the channel capacity of 5-GHz-band multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication using microwave-guided modes propagating along a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe wall for a buried pipe inspection robot. We design a planar Yagi-Uda antenna to reduce transmission losses in communication with PVC pipe walls as propagation paths. Coupling efficiency between the antenna and a PVC pipe is improved by attaching a PVC adapter with the same curvature as the PVC pipe's inner wall to the Yagi-Uda antenna to eliminate any gap between the antenna and the inner wall of the PVC pipe. The use of a planar Yagi-Uda antenna with a PVC adaptor decreases the transmission loss of a 5-GHz-band microwave signal propagating along a 1-m-lomg straight PVC pipe wall by 7dB compared to a dipole antenna. The channel capacity of a 2×2 MIMO system using planar Yagi-Uda antennas is more than twice that of the system using dipole antennas.

This paper presents a $24 imes24$ MIMO channel sounder that has been developed based on a scalable fully parallel MIMO architecture. It can be flexibly configured with 3 sub-transmitters and 3 sub-receivers, each of which consists of 8 RF ports. This flexibility allows the measurement for both purposes of double directional and multi-link MIMO channel measurements. Implementation issues related to the multi-link operation on the fully parallel architecture were successfully solved by appropriate system design and applying several calibration techniques. The performance of the developed system was validated by extensive test experiments. Finally, a multi-link channel measurement example in an indoor environment was presented demonstrating the capability of the proposed system.

We have measured the non line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation characteristics of microwave frequencies in an urban environment with a base station antenna situated well above the surrounding buildings. When these characteristics are compared with the results of measurements made in the same environment with a low base station antenna height, it can be seen that with a low base station antenna height the attenuation coefficient varies greatly between line-of-sight (LOS) and NLOS environments, whereas with a high base station antenna height there is no variation of this sort. This is because the waves arriving NLOS environments from a high base station antenna do so primarily as a result of rooftop diffraction, and the path loss does not vary much over regions of equal distance between the base station and mobile station. We have confirmed that the frequency characteristics of relative loss in NLOS environments with a high antenna height follow a relationship of 22.8 log f, which is more or less the same as the characteristic for the UHF band. By modifying the frequency terms of the Sakagami model (used for UHF band) based on this trend to allow it to handle microwave frequencies, a close correspondence is seen between the results of actual measurements and the values predicted by the extended model.

This paper discusses microwave path-loss characteristics as a function of mobile antenna height in an urban line-of-sight environment. Measurements were made in metropolitan Tokyo with high-density buildings, using base station antenna heights of 4 and 8 m. We describe the path-loss characteristics of vehicle-mounted mode (mobile antenna height is 2.7 m) and portable mode (mobile antenna heights are 1.6 and 0.5 m). Dependence of path loss on the distance between base and mobile stations was analyzed. This reveals that the break points shift to the near side in the vehicle-mounted mode. This phenomenon can be interpreted by the existence of an effective height h of the road. The typical value of h was found approximately 1.4 m. In the portable mode, on the other hand, break points were not observed. The mobile antenna heights (1.6 and 0.5 m) in this mode are close to or less than the average height (1-2 m) of pedestrians on the sidewalk; and the received waves at the mobile station are often disturbed by pedestrians. This explains the nonexistence of break points in portable mode. The average attenuation coefficients is observed 3.2 in this mode. The attenuation coefficients tend to be larger at lower base station antenna heights and narrower road widths.

There is currently a need for development of a new frequency band to enable creation of next-generation mobile communication systems. Of the potential bands, the 3 GHz and over microwave band holds the greatest promise. Experimental studies on the delay characteristics of multipath propagation must be conducted in order to achieve high-speed transmission in the microwave band. We have developed a system for measuring the microwave broadband propagation delay profile over 100 MHz spread bandwidths in the 3, 8 and 15 GHz bands. Our experiments confirmed system performances of 20-ns resolution, 40-µs maximum measurable delay, relative amplitude error of within 3 dB and dynamic range of over 60 dB. We used our system to measure delay profiles on an urban area with line of sight, particularly, in terms of the effects of mobile antenna height. Typical examples are presented. Analysis showed that delay spreads increased with transmit/receive distance and decreased with the higher antenna height.

Observations on a 25 km Microwave study link operating at 10.5 GHz revealed that the attenuation caused by dust storms agrees very well with theoretical predictions. During an extremely dense storm, at the peak of which visibility dropped to less than 5 meters, the maximum attenuation observed was less than 7 dB. The computed value lies between 3.8 and 10.2 dB. The uncertainty is due to lack of information on the exact visibility during the storm. The effect of dust particles precipitation is found to reduce attenuation in an exponential manner. An analysis based on particles size distribution and their terminal velocity in air is developed to explain the observed exponential decay.