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 novel blind signal separation method for the measurement of pulse waves at multiple body positions using an array radar system. The proposed method is based on a mathematical model of pulse wave propagation. The model relies on three factors: (1) a small displacement approximation, (2) beam pattern orthogonality, and (3) an impulse response model of pulse waves. The separation of radar echoes is formulated as an optimization problem, and the associated objective function is established using the mathematical model. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method using measured radar data from participants lying in a prone position. The accuracy of the proposed method, in terms of estimating the body displacements, is measured using reference data taken from laser displacement sensors. The average estimation errors are found to be 10-21% smaller than those of conventional methods. These results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method for achieving noncontact measurements of the displacements of multiple body positions.

This paper presents a 120-GHz-band split ring resonator (SRR) bandstop filter whose insertion loss can be controlled by coupling another lattice pattern substrate. The SRR bandstop filter and lattice pattern substrate is composed of 200-µm-thick quartz substrate and 5-µm-thick gold patterns. S21 of the SRR bandstop filter is -37.8 dB, and its -10-dB bandwidth is 115-130 GHz. S21 of the SRR bandstop filter changes to -4.1 dB at 125 GHz by arranging the lattice pattern substrate in close proximity to the SRR stopband filter, because coupling between the SRR and the lattice pattern occurs when the SRR and lattice pattern are opposed in close proximity. It was found that 10 Gbit/s data transmission can be achieved by setting the lattice pattern substrate just above the SRR bandstop filter with a spacer thickness of 50 µm, even though data transmission is impossible when only the SRR bandstop filter is inserted between the transmitter and the receiver.

Recently, computer speed and memory capacity have been advanced. Therefore, applicable space size or equivalently the frequency in the FDTD method has been increased similar as the ray-tracing method for radio wave propagation. The ray-tracing method can obtain easily important parameters such as path loss, delay profile and angular profile. On the other hand, the FDTD method seems difficult to obtain an angular profile. We can overcome this problem by applying the DOA estimation method to the FDTD method. In this paper, we show that the FDTD method can be used as a counterpart of the ray-tracing method to analyze radio wave propagation of large space by using DOA estimation method such as MUSIC method.

In the development of inter-vehicle communication systems for the prevention of car crashes, it is important to know radio propagation characteristics at blind intersections. In field experiments and numerical simulations to investigate radio propagation characteristics, a half wavelength dipole antenna is assumed to be the wave source in many cases. However, a directivity of car antenna is changed by the effect of both car body and antenna position on car. In this paper, path loss characteristics considering antenna positions on car body at a blind intersection in urban area for inter-vehicle communications using 700MHz band are investigated. Additionally, simplified car models are proposed for the efficient analysis of radio propagation. Here, the hybrid method using both FDTD and ray-tracing methods is used for the radio propagation analysis.

To design a wireless sensor network for farms, it is necessary to understand and predict the effect of vegetation. In this study, the change in the propagation loss characteristics in 920-MHz band is examined during the growth of mulberry bushes. The received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is measured as a function of the distance between the transmitting antenna (Tx) and the receiving antenna (Rx) in a 50×50m mulberry field. The Tx and Rx are placed at a height of 1.5m. Moreover, the horizontal and vertical polarizations are measured and the differences are shown. Three empirical vegetation attenuation models are introduced, and the measured data have been fitted to each model. The results show that the non-zero gradient model is the best model at predicting the vegetation attenuation in a mulberry farm regardless of the polarization or mulberry growth. It is found that the attenuation dependence on the plant height is linear. Furthermore, the results have revealed that the horizontal polarization had about 1.5 times as large an effect on the vegetation attenuation as the vertical polarization.

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) radio is attracting attention as one of the key enabling physical layer technologies for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile access and backhaul. This paper aims at clarifying possible roles of mm-wave radio in the 5G development and performing a comprehensive literature survey on mm-wave radio channel modeling essential for the feasibility study. Emphasis in the literature survey is laid on grasping the typical behavior of mm-wave channels, identifying missing features in the presently available channel models for the design and evaluation of the mm-wave radio links within the 5G context, and exemplifying different channel modeling activities through analyses performed in the authors' group. As a key technological element of the mm-wave radios, reduced complexity beamforming is also addressed. Design criteria of the beamforming are developed based on the spatial multipath characteristics of measured indoor mm-wave channels.

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.

An inter-vehicle communication system for the 720 MHz band that is designed to prevent car crashes at intersections has recently been proposed in Japan. This paper presents an analysis of the propagation characteristics of an intersection surrounded by concrete block walls in a residential area. The propagation characteristics were analyzed for the first time using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. We investigated the influence of wall thickness and source locations on the propagation characteristics. The results of our investigation showed that the most commonly used wall thickness and source locations do not strongly affect propagation loss. Furthermore, we analyzed the power delay profile and delay spread by taking into consideration the structure of the concrete block walls.

In this paper, we performed six human movement simulation by a commercial software (Poser7). We performed FDTD simulations for body area network propagation with one transmitter and six receivers. Received amplitudes were calculated for every time frame of 1/30 s interval. We also demonstrated a polarization diversity effectiveness for dynamic wearable body area network propagation.

In this paper, we have derived a novel integral representation for the ground wave propagation over land-to-sea mixed-paths by applying the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff integral theorem. By using the method of stationary phase applicable uniformly as the stationary phase point approaches the endpoint of the integral, we have derived the asymptotic solution for the scattered fields consisting of the first-order and the second-order diffraction terms. We show that the asymptotic solution thus derived agrees with the asymptotic solution derived by applying the aperture field method (AFM) and the method of stationary phase. We have confirmed the validity and the utility of the novel integral representation and its asymptotic solution by comparing with the widely used mixed-path theorem and the experimental measurement performed in Kanto area and Tokyo bay.

Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) system using 700 MHz band to prevent car crashes has been proposed recently. In this paper, we first apply the FDTD method to the analyses of propagation characteristics at an intersection for IVC. We investigate the propagation characteristics considering the electrical conductivities, thickness and windows of building wall and pedestrians. As a result, it is shown that the electrical conductivities and thickness of building wall have a slight influence. In contrast, windows and pedestrians have a great influence on the propagation characteristics. Furthermore, the azimuth delay profiles are obtained by using the MUSIC algorithm.

Maido-1 satellite was launched on 23 January 2009. The satellite carries the radio-frequency payload, Broadband Measurement of Waveform for VHF Lightning Impulses (VHF sensor), for research on lightning discharges. The final goal of our research is to locate sources of impulsive VHF radiation from lightning discharges and constantly monitor lightning activity from space. Maido-1 satellite has the aim of proving the functions of the sensor in space and to study the radio propagation characteristics of the ionosphere. Through the operation/observation for 5 months, more than 10,000 VHF signals have been recorded. The locations where VHF signals are detected and the examples of the received waveforms are presented in this paper. We discuss the regional dependency of the received signals.

Beam steering of leaky wave radiation from a nonreciprocal composite right/left handed transmission line with a ferrite substrate is proposed. The nonreciprocal phase constants of the line were tuned by changing the applied DC magnetic field normal to the ferrite substrate. In the numerical simulation and the experiment, the nonreciprocal phase characteristics and leaky wave radiation are investigated for the ferrite substrate with the magnetization not only in the saturated region, but also in the unsaturated region. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the measurement. It is confirmed that the beam directions of the obliquely unidirectional leaky wave radiation for two different power directions are continuously tunable.

In this paper, we have obtained the integral representation for the ground wave propagation over land-to-sea mixed-paths which uses the equivalent current source on an aperture plane. By extending the integral to the complex plane and deforming the integration path into the steepest descent path, we have derived a simple integral representation for the mixed-path ground wave propagation. We have also derived the hybrid numerical and asymptotic representation for an efficient calculation of the ground wave and for easy understanding of the diffraction phenomena. By using the method of the stationary phase applicable uniformly as the stationary phase point approaches the endpoint, we have derived the high-frequency asymptotic solution for the ground wave propagation over the mixed-path. We have confirmed the validity of the various representations by comparing both with the conventional mixed-path theory and with the experimental results performed in Kanto areas including the sea near Tokyo bay. By examining the asymptotic solution in detail, we have found out the cause or the mechanism of the recovery effect occurring on the portion of the sea over the land-to-sea mixed-path.

In this paper, we have derived the new solution for the medium-frequency and the high-frequency ground wave propagation in a surface duct over mixed-paths. We have shown newly that the solution for the ground wave propagation in a standard atmosphere can be obtained directly from the solution for the surface duct problem by applying the analytic continuation from the negative equivalent radius of curvature of the earth to the positive one. Through the theoretical and experimental studies, it is confirmed that the radio wave propagating over the sea in the land-to-sea mixed-paths is enhanced by the recovery effect. It is clarified that the ground wave is also enhanced in the surface duct in a long range propagation. It is shown that the unexpected attenuation and the anomalous variation with distance are appeared in the propagation in the urban area due to the emergence of the slow-wave type trapped surface wave.

We have demonstrated radio-over-fiber transmission of wireless signals at millimeter-wave bands. The system incorporated 25 km of an optical intermediate frequency feeder and 60 GHz OFDM signal transmission at 155 Mbps with a BER of less than 10-6 was achieved within the system cell of a radius of 2.6 m under the channel condition of Line-of-Sight.

In this study, nonlinear wave phenomena related to transmissions and reflections of the phase-inversion waves around a discontinuity of a coupled system consisting of two kinds of arrays of van der Pol oscillators are investigated. By computer simulations, behavior of the phase-inversion waves around the discontinuity in the coupled system is classified into eight types. Further, the mechanisms of the transmission and the reflection of a phase-inversion wave at the discontinuity are explained. Circuit experiments confirm the simulated results.

Point-to-point optical and millimeter wave communication has recently been of interest, especially in urban areas. Its benefits include simpler and easier installation compared with a land-based line. However, this technology suffers when adverse weather conditions are present, such as rain, fog and clouds, which induce scattering and absorption of the optical wave. The effects of scattering and absorption degrade the quality of the communication link resulting in increase of bit-error-rate. Therefore, there exists a need for accurate channel characterization in order to understand and mitigate the problem. In this paper, radiative transfer theory is employed to study the behavior of amplitude modulated signal propagating through a random medium. We show the effect of the medium to a modulated signal and relate the outcome on the quality of the communication link.

It is found that the supercontinuum spectrum is generated from cross-phase modulated soliton pulses which are propagated through a dispersion-flattened/decreasing fiber with low birefringence. The cross-phase modulation is achieved by exciting two orthogonally polarized modes in a birefringent fiber and the effect of input azimuth of linearly polarized pulses is discussed theoretically and numerically.