Experimental investigation of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the 60 GHz radio propagation within residential environments

Overview & Synopsis

The 60 GHz frequency band appears to be very promising for wireless multimedia services in the next years. Reasons of this interest are partly due to the large available bandwidths, and to the important power loss caused by the free space attenuation and the propagation through walls, which permits the reuse of the same frequency even in the next floor ofthe same building. In France, a national research project, RNRT COMMINDOR. studied new high data rate radio communication systems (155 Mbps), for residential environments. This study has begun by the characterization ofthe propagation channel at 60 GHz. In this paper, we present a spatial and temporal characterization of the 60 GHr indoor radio channel. Measurements campaigns have been conducted by the Institute of Electronic and Telecommunication of Rennes (IETR). The results indicate the necessity to introduce a form of diversity in order to guaranty a high data rate link even under NLOS (non line of sight) conditions. We suggest to use the angular diversity of the 60 GHz channel.