Measurement of radio channels using an elastic convolver and spread spectrum modulation. II. Results

A spread spectrum measurement system using a surface acoustic wave convolver has been used to measure radio wave propagation in steel works at 1.75 GHz with an echo delay resolution of /spl ap/20 ns. Due to the high metal content of the factory halls, path loss is found to be small and its exponent to range between 1.1 and 2.3 only. We observed a delay spread between 82 and 548 ns depending on the size of the steel mill, its construction and machinery. Characterizing the radio channel by a stochastic delay line model the echo amplitude probability distribution is found to fit a Rician or log-normal distribution rather than a Rayleigh distribution. The fit of the amplitude distributions is determined by a /spl chi//sup 2/ hypothesis test. From the channel impulse response the coherence bandwidth is deduced to range between 2.4 and 27.4 MHz.>