System development and experimental validation of a long-range VNA-based channel sounder

• Published in: IET microwaves, antennas & propagation Vol. 14; no. 14; pp. 1733 - 1741
• Main Authors: Mbugua, Allan Wainaina, Fan, Wei, Cai, Xuesong, Chen, Yun, Wang, Wei, Olesen, Kim, Pedersen, Gert Frølund
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 25.11.2020
• Subjects: back‐to‐back measurements; channel parameters; channel sounding equipment; complicated component; de‐embedding phase errors; frequency 1.0 GHz to 50.0 GHz; hardware impairments; long‐range ultra‐channel sounder; long‐range VNA‐based channel sounder; millimetre wave propagation; network analysers; optical circulators; radio propagation channel; radio‐over‐fibre; radio‐over‐fibre techniques; Special Section: Selected papers from the 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019) conference; two‐branch bidirectional schemes; two‐branch unidirectional schemes; vector network analyser; wireless channels; wireless communication system; radio-over-fibre; millimetre wave propagation; long-range ultra-channel sounder; two-branch unidirectional schemes; optical circulators; hardware impairments; vector network analyser; back-to-back measurements; wireless communication system; channel parameters; radio propagation channel; radio-over-fibre techniques; network analysers; channel sounding equipment; wireless channels; two-branch bidirectional schemes; complicated component; de-embedding phase errors; long-range VNA-based channel sounder; frequency 1.0 GHz to 50.0 GHz
• ISSN: 1751-8725; 1751-8733
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-map.2019.0923

In a wireless communication system, the radio propagation channel is a complicated component to characterise. Channel sounding equipment thus has to meet specific criteria to extract the desired channel parameters. In this study, the authors outline the development and validation of a vector network analyser (VNA) based channel sounder for the frequency range from 1 to 50 GHz using radio-over-fibre techniques. Three methods of de-embedding phase errors due to hardware impairments are demonstrated and validated via back-to-back measurements. The bidirectional scheme utilising optical circulators is shown to have a superior performance over the two-branch unidirectional and the two-branch bidirectional schemes. Therefore, the bidirectional scheme utilising optical circulators is proposed to achieve a long-range ultra-channel sounder based on the VNA.