Feasibility evaluation and performance enhancement of surface‐wave‐based communication in metallic structures

This study verifies the feasibility of surface‐wave communication as a solution to the severe attenuation and multipath fading encountered by free‐space wireless systems in metallic environments. Surface‐wave characteristics on dielectric‐coated metal surfaces are analyzed in terms of field distribution and attenuation with respect to dielectric thickness and frequency. Experiments conducted in a structure emulating a watertight door show that placing a dielectric layer on the metal surface increases the received signal strength by about 5 dB and improves throughput by more than fourfold compared with the case without the dielectric layer. Additional experiments comparing surface‐wave and free‐space communication in the same ship‐like structure demonstrate that surface‐wave communication achieves approximately a 7 dB increase in received signal strength and more than a 15‐fold improvement in throughput relative to free‐space propagation. These results confirm that surface‐wave techniques can significantly enhance wireless coverage and reliability inside dense metallic structures and provide practical insights for future industrial wireless communication system design.