Estimation of Average Rician K-Factor and Average Mode Bandwidth in Loaded Reverberation Chamber

A well-stirred reverberation chamber without noticeable direct coupling between the transmitting and receiving antennas emulates an isotropic Rayleigh fading environment and can therefore be used for qualitative over-the-air (OTA) measurements of wireless devices with small nondirective antennas. By loading such a chamber, it is possible to generate a Rician environment. This letter introduces an average Rician K-factor that describes the reverberation chamber better than the normal K-factor, in particular when the chamber is provided with platform and polarization stirring. This letter shows how to estimate this average K-factor. The average mode bandwidth also changes by loading the chamber. While the average K-factor determines uncertainty, the average mode bandwidth determines the channel coherence bandwidth. They are therefore the two most important parameters for the characterizations of a reverberation chamber.