In this paper, an optical signal processing beam forming network (BFN) for two-dimensional (2-D) beam steering is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Two lightwaves, called the signal and reference, are both Fourier transformed, combined, and then down-converted into RF signals using an optical heterodyne technique. A simple combination of orthogonal one-dimensional position scannings of the signal and reference lightwaves generates RF signals with phase distributions for 2-D beam steering. The system operation and optical losses are theoretically analyzed. Using graded index fiber (GIF) lensed single mode fibers (SMFs), total optical loss of the sampling fiber array is evaluated to be 4.5 dB from the fiber to fiber loss measurements. Using an experimental optical signal processing BFN at 25 GHz, 2-D beam steering is demonstrated at 0, 10, 20, and 30through the measured amplitudes and phases of RF signals for 16 position sets of the signal and reference fibers. The proposed method has the potential to provide ultra-fast beam scanning by utilizing optical switching technologies.

This paper examines the Inter Carrier Interference (ICI) due to Doppler spread in OFDM mobile reception and proposes the use of Beam-Space Adaptive Array Antennas for moving receivers. In the proposed system, firstly we separate the multi-path signals into multi-beams according to their incident directions, then correct the frequency shift of each beam signal, considering the beam direction, and finally combine the corrected signals based on Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC). Further this paper clarifies the excellent performance of the proposed system in suppressing the influence of Doppler spread by carrying out computer simulation. Particularly, it was certified that it is possible to suppress the influence of the Doppler spread efficiently for all the receiving directions by using eight-element beam-space array antenna with element spacing of (3/8)λ, and referring three past symbol data when calculating the weight vector of MRC.

We propose an implementation of the tapped delay line adaptive array (TDLAA) at the base station for improving the BER performance of asynchronous multi-user mobile communication over fast fading channels using multiple antennas. The data of each user at the mobile station, which applies two transmit antennas, are encoded by Space Time Block Code (STBC). The proposed scheme transmits the pilot signal and information data in alternate time slots. We derive performance criteria for designing such a scheme under the assumption that the fading is classified as fast fading. We show that the proposed scheme can suppress co-channel interference (CCI) and defeat Doppler spread effectively.

Ray tracing is an efficient method for analyzing transmission characteristic of indoor wireless systems. However for simulating the transmission characteristic, using a path profile obtained by ray tracing, calculation times become enormous and there is no good theoretical model which can link a path analysis result with digital transmission characteristics evaluation. To overcome such problems, in this paper, a simple calculation method on spatial distribution of error occurrence due to intersymbol interference (ISI) based on "the equivalent transmission-path (ETP) model" is proposed. The ETP model is a technique that can simply estimate statistics of errors due to ISI that arise in Rayleigh and Nakagami-Rice fading environments. If a simple calculation method proposed in this paper is used, calculation time of digital transmission characteristics evaluation become tremendously shorter and results of this method agree with those of exact simulations with sufficient accuracy.

This paper describes the characteristics of multipath fading in aeronautical satellite communications by mainly applying the maritime fading model.

A baseband transmission scheme for wireless communications has been proposed and examined using a pair of discone antennas for transmission and reception. The wireless baseband transmission scheme radiates a baseband signal stream, such as non-return-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ), or Manchester encoded signals, directly from an antenna. Namely, a carrier in terms of a sinusoidal radio wave or light wave is not used in the transmission. In experiments, baseband pulses generated with a data generator were radiated directly from the discone antenna, and received waveforms were observed with a digital storage oscilloscope. The experiments showed that wireless baseband transmission is realisable when using antennas with a flat amplitude spectrum and a linear phase characteristic, such as discone antennas, over a given band. Manchester encoding is promising for this wireless baseband transmission.

This paper presents an approximation method of statistical distribution of the largest eigenvalue of i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed) MIMO (multiple input multiple output) channel correlation matrices under Nakagami-Rice fading environment. The equation is actually derived for MIMO Nakagami m fading channel which is known as a good approximation of Nakagami-Rice fading, hence it well approximates the curves of the largest eigenvalue distribution of noncentral Wishart matrices. In the proposed approximation method, MIMO MRC (maximal ratio combining) system is ascribed to SIMO space diversity theory with the same number of branches, and the statistical distribution becomes a monomial gamma distribution. As a result, the derived marginal density function does not contain any special functions, and has a simple monomial gamma form which is suitable for various calculations of performance indices. Through computer simulations, it is shown that the proposed approximation formula is effective and has a better precision than conventional method.

For Nakagami-Rice fading environment which seems to become a principle propagation environment in the next generation wideband and high-capacity mobile systems such as personal communications, we have previously proposed an approximated evaluation scheme for wideband digital transmission characteristics such as errors due to intersymbol interference of multipath waves. We called the scheme 'Equivalent Transmission-Path (ETP) Model.' In this paper, through a discussion about more general equivalent propagation channel expressions, we clarify a theoretical foundation of the ETP model and extend the model to have an ability of expression of instantaneous fading condition varying with time. Also the appropriateness of the instantaneous expression is examined by a computer simulation analysis. Based on this model, statistics of link quality and service availability in Nakagami-Rice fading environments are discussed.

As an optically controlled array antenna, a "two-laser type" using two laser diodes whose frequency difference is set to the desired microwave frequency has been proposed. In this paper, we confirm experimentally that the beamforming network of the two-laser type array antenna has very broadband characteristics by measuring the amplitude and phase of microwave signals at 1.5 GHz, 10 GHz and 20 GHz. Using the optically controlled beam forming network, the radiation pattern of a 4-element linear array antenna was measured at 1.5 GHz.

We have investigated the gain and noise figure characteristics of a Nd-doped silica single-mode fiber amplifier (NDFA) at 1.06 µm which is applicable to various systems using a Nd: YAG laser light source at 1.06 µm, such as free-space laser communications, a fiber sensing system, and a lidar system. A fluorescence spectrum observation of the Nd-doped fibers with various co-dopants shows that the Nd-A1 co-doped fiber is suitable for realizing a high-gain amplifier for the 1.06-µm wavelength region. The pump wavelength tolerance at around 0.81 µm , the gain bandwidth and the sufficient value of the Nd concentration and length product for achieving maximum small signal gain are clarified. A noise figure of almost 3 dB and small signal gain of more than 30 dB are attained by 50-mW pump power. The unique four-level system characteristics, even in low pumppower conditions, provide low noise amplification in the NDFA. These gain and noise characteristics are well described by a simple theoretical model. We also demonstrated high-power operation of the NDFA with four pump LD modules adoptinga polarization-multiplexing technique. More than 100-mW signal output power is available for 1-mW signal input power at 200mW launched pump power. These features of the NDFA as a compact, polarization-independent, spatial-beam -distortion-free amplifier, will allow it to replace the solid sate laser in various applications using a Nd: YAG laser light source at 1.06µm.

The link properties of double-layered constellation composed of inclined orbits for an advanced global satellite communications network connected by optical inter-satellite links (ISLs) have been evaluated. The constellation consists of lower layer satellites for mobile and personal satellite communications, and upper layer satellites for large-capacity fixed satellite communications and feeder links. Optical inter-satellite links, which can perform high-capacity communications with small terminals, are used for all inter-satellite data transmission. Although a satellite constellation using polar orbits in both layers offers the merit of simplicity in network configurations, it has disadvantages caused by the satellite consentration above high latitudes. The inclined orbit constellation offers the potential for reducing the required number of satellites improving ling properties, and enhancing the coverage in middle and low latitudes, by selecting the optimum orbital inclinations. The link properties between the satellites and terminals on the ground, optical ISL properties, and required number of satellites were evaluated for constellations using inclined orbits, and compared with those of a polar orbit constellation. Three kinds of inclined orbit constellations achieving continuous double coverage, which is a minimum requirement for future advanced satellite communications applying satellite diversity, were assumed for each layer.

This paper presents the beam forming characteristics of an optical waveguide-type phased array antenna. Four linearly arranged array antenna was monolithically fabricated on one LiNbO3 substrate containing variable power dividers (VPDs) and optical phase shifters (OPSs). The amplitude and the phase of each antenna element was controlled by applying DC voltage on each VPD and OPS. Open ends of Ti-indiffused waveguides were used as antenna elements. This antenna was designed to operate at 1.3 µm wavelength band. Experimental results confirm the good beam forming capability of optical phased array antennas.

This paper presents a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) propagation model for independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) channels in the mixture of none-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) and Line-of-Sight (LOS) environments. The derived model enables to evaluate the system statistical characteristics of Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) for MIMO transmission based on Maximal Ratio Combing (MRC). An application example applying the model in 22 configuration to ITS Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) system is introduced. We clarify the effectiveness of the proposed model by comparisons of both computer simulations and measurement results of a field experiment. We also use the model to show the better performance of SNR when applying MIMO to IVC system than SISO and SIMO.

Reverberation chambers that easily create multipath-rich environments are suggested as test environments for the performance evaluation of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) terminals. However, the propagation environment characteristic is difficult to control in conventional reverberation chambers. In this paper, we propose an improved double-layered reverberation chamber to control the arrival wave distribution in addition to the cross-polarization power ratio (XPR). We show the design method of the double-layered reverberation chamber and the experimental results of the propagation environment control using our constructed measurement system.

This paper reviews our recent antennas and propagation studies for MIMO systems. First we introduce a MIMO propagation channel model in which an interesting nature can be found in eigenvalue statistics from a practical viewpoint. Then we introduce multi-keyhole model which is an efficient tool for designing a MIMO repeater systems, or MIMO radio-relay systems. For realization of compact MIMO antenna systems, effectiveness of using multiple polarizations such as dual polarizations and triple polarizations is demonstrated in multipath-rich propagation environments. With application of MIMO to OFDM systems, we focus our analysis on relation between propagation and digital transmission characteristics under a severe multipath-rich environment where the delay profile exceeds the guard interval. Finally, we discuss transmission characteristics of MIMO-OFDM with maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity in the environment.

MIMO leads to dramatic improvement in channel capacity and/or link reliability of wireless systems. However, a MIMO channel has only one degree of freedom in a keyhole environment. As a result, this environment reduces achievable channel capacity and link quality. This paper proposes a MIMO repeater system, which can realize a multi-stream transmission. Although the averaged channel capacity in the MIMO repeater system is discussed in several published papers, the probability density functions of eigenvalues of correlation matrix are not analyzed. MIMO transmission performance can basically be estimated from eigenvalues of the channel correlation matrix. We derive an approximated formula for the probability density function of all eigenvalues linked to the space diversity. It is shown that the calculated values based on the proposed method agrees very well with the simulated values.

We construct two types of reverberation chambers, one is 4(m) × 2(m) × 2(m)-sized and the other is 2(m) × 2(m) × 2(m)-sized for realizing a multipath-rich environment for MIMO-OTA measurements. In this paper, we measure fundamental propagation characteristics, including amplitude statistics, multipath-delay statistics, spatial correlation characteristics, and cross polarization characteristics over a frequency range of 800MHz to 5GHz in our reverberation chamber. Also, we confirm the existence of spatially uniform area of 1m2 area, which might be sufficiently large to set a device under test (DUT) in the chamber. Theoretical considerations about the characteristics are also given to support the design of reverberation chamber.

This letter presents experimentally that the power gain of axial-mode helical antenna can be improved by installing a relatively thin dielectric cylinder outside the helix, and also presented in some theoretical consideration to clarify the above effect approximately.

In this paper, we propose an adaptive algorithm based on accumulated signal processing, which could be applicable to Post-FFT-type OFDM adaptive array antennas. Proposed scheme calculates the weight of each element at a particular instant t, by considering both post- and pre-received symbols. Because of the use of additional forthcoming information on channel behavior in the weight calculation scheme, one can expect an improved performance in fast fading conditions by using the proposed adaptive algorithm. This paper also discusses the application of the proposed adaptive algorithm to OFDM adaptive array. In OFDM application, a few subchannels are being used to transmit pilot symbols, and at the receiver, the proposed adaptive algorithm is applied to those pilot subchannels, and interpolates the weights for the data subchannels which are allocated between the pilot subchannels. Finally, the system performance improvement with the application of the proposed adaptive algorithm is verified by computer simulation.

In order to assess the effect of multipath fading on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) signal transmission when the delay profile exceeds the guard interval, a simple prediction model is developed based on the Equivalent Transmission-Path (ETP) model. This model, which is described in this paper, is referred to as the ETP-OFDM-statistical model. The validity of the model is demonstrated by comparing the calculated digital transmission characteristics to results obtained by computer simulation. Using the newly developed ETP-OFDM-statistical model, digital transmission characteristics of the OFDM signal in a multipath environment when the delay profile exceeds the guard interval are shown as a function of delay spread, guard interval and OFDM symbol period.