SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Communications and Embedded Systems

Radiowave Propagation

Measurement Suite

 

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A receiver and mobile transmitter to measure propagation of radiowaves in the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) band was developed by engineers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).  Most of the equipment was (commercial off-the-shelf) COTS, including arbitrary waveform generators, power amplifiers, GPS (global positioning system) timing standards, and digital receivers. The equipment was delivered in standard 19″ racks with Sun™ workstations for control and monitoring.

 

Custom software was developed to graphically display the received power level (over time, using a strip-chart), the power spectral density, and/or the delay spread. The transmitted signal had a chip rate of approximately 3.5 Mcps, and an adaptive Wiener filter was used to calibrate out the hardware distortion.

 

Four separate antennas were used on both the transmitter and the receiver. Each receiver antenna had a completely independent RF down-converter and digitizer. This configuration enabled the analysts to study the benefits of spatial diversity.

 

For more information about radiowave propagation measurement suite capabilities at SwRI or how you can contract with SwRI, please contact Tom Untermeyer at tuntermeyer@swri.org or (210) 522-5040. We can offer you the best approach for solving your communications and embedded systems problem.

 

Contact Information

Tom Untermeyer

Communications and Embedded Systems

(210) 522-5040

tuntermeyer@swri.org

Related Terminology

communication devices

radiowave propagation measurement suite

mobile transmitter and receiver

radiowave measurement

universal mobile telecommunications system band

arbitrary waveform generators

Sun workstations

custom software development

communications engineering

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Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multidisciplinary, independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with 12 technical divisions.

November 16, 2009