Millimeter-Wave Channel Measurements in Airport Environment

The wide spectrum available at millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands promises very high data rates and has been proposed as an attractive solution to provide high-speed and reliable wireless communication. Further, there are various potential usages of mmWave technology in transportation, aviation, autonomous vehicles, robotics, etc. Specifically, it is anticipated that automation through this technology will affect and improve the operations in every phase in airport environments. Consequently, the extended autonomous capabilities at airports will generate and consume more information and increase the demand for robust data transfer, which requires larger data rates than ever before. Hence, mmWave frequency, due to its large available spectrum, can be utilized for achieving such larger data rates, specifically for short-range applications. However, utilization of this technology crucially depends on precise measurement, characterization, parameterization, and modeling of the wireless channel. Moreover, our literature survey has revealed a pressing need for channel models for new airport applications of mmWave frequency band. Therefore, in this dissertation, we empirically characterize mmWave channels in a variety of settings for airport communication systems. Several measurement campaigns and environment descriptions at several bands (60, 73, and 81 GHz) are presented. A combination of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight measurements were taken in both indoor and outdoor settings at the Boise airport. Some measurements at these high frequencies were captured at Boise State University for comparison purposes. More specifically, we captured power delay profiles during the measurement campaign for the large-scale and small-scale fading analysis. For the large-scale fading effects, path loss models were computed from the power delay profiles at 60, 73, and 81 GHz, and some critical large-scale path loss parameters were extracted and analyzed. Moreover, we obtained mmWave outdoor small-scale fading statistics from 73 and 81 GHz channel measurement campaigns at Boise Airport. Wideband spatial fading measurements were made using a Gimbal attached with a linear track to move a receiver antenna for characterizing small-scale fading. Based upon our measurement data, we compared the receive signal amplitude with Rayleigh, Ricean, and log-normal fading models. In addition, we present the penetration, attenuation, and reflection characteristics of common building materials at these high-frequency bands. Measurements were taken for both wideband and narrowband signals to estimate attenuation at mmWave bands. These results are important to estimate coverage, interference analysis, and average error rate over a fading channel. Hence, they can aid researchers and system designers in the simulation and design of mmWave communication systems. Through extensive channel measurement campaigns and analysis, this dissertation contributes various insights to the field of wideband channel measurement and modeling in airport environments.