Experimental investigation on channel characteristics

in tunnel environment for Time Reversal Ultra

Wide Band techniques
Concepcion Garcia-Pardo,
1
Martine Lienard,
2
Pierre Degauque,
2
Jose-Maria Molina-Garcia-Pardo,
1
and Leandro Juan-Llcer
1
Received 10 October 2011; revised 30 November 2011; accepted 5 December 2011; published 9 February 2012.
[1] The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential advantages of the Time
Reversal (TR) technique applied to Impulse Radio Ultra Wide Band (UWB) signals for
communications in tunnels. Indeed, in an environment with significant multipaths, it has
already been outlined that this technique allows mitigating intersymbol interference and
increases the peak power received at a target antenna. However, in a tunnel, as a result of
the guiding effect of the structure, the spatial diversity degree decreases as the distance
between the transmitter and receiver increases. An in-depth analysis is therefore needed,
and we first thus present the main characteristics of the UWB channel deduced from
measurements made in a long straight arched tunnel and for a frequency band extending
from 2.8 to 5 GHz. In the time domain, waveforms of the impulse radio signal are obtained
through an inverse Fourier transform of the measured frequency response and examples are
given for different distances varying from 50 m to 500 m. Delay spread and peak-to-peak
gain are then studied, depending on the communication range. The case for multiple
antenna transmission is also considered.
Citation: Garcia-Pardo, C., M. Lienard, P. Degauque, J.-M. Molina-Garcia-Pardo, and L. Juan-Llcer (2012), Experimental
investigation on channel characteristics in tunnel environment for Time Reversal Ultra Wide Band techniques, Radio Sci., 47,
RS1009, doi:10.1029/2011RS004893.
1. Introduction
[2] In the transportation domain, and more specifically in
underground subways, there is a growing demand to ensure
a high and reliable bit rate for train to track or train to train
communication. Increasing the channel capacity will allow,
for example, for coping with the growing complexity of
control-command systems.
[3] To achieve this goal, a first possibility which has
already been investigated, is to use a multiple antenna
transmission scheme, as in Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO) techniques. Such techniques are well recognized as
an effective way to improve communication performance in
a strong multipath configuration, as occurs in indoor or
urban environments [Foschini and Gans, 1998; Paulraj
et al., 2004]. However, the guiding structure of the tunnel
may decrease the channel diversity. A number of papers
were thus devoted to studying the narrow band channel
characteristics as the spatial correlation [Molina-Garcia-
Pardo et al., 2008a], in order to determine whether spatial
multiplexing would yield a significant increase in the chan-
nel capacity [Valdesueiro et al., 2010]. In all these studies,
the carrier transmitting frequency is limited to a few GHz to
minimize path loss.
[4] Another possibility to improve the performance of the
link in a tunnel environment could be by using an Ultra
Wide Band (UWB) transmission. An additional advantage
of this technique is that the location of a mobile can be
established with good precision. A great number of papers
have been published on UWB, covering numerous config-
urations, from indoor/in-home environments to factory halls
[Win and Scholtz, 2002; Muqaibel et al., 2006; Molisch,
2009]. However, since the configuration of a tunnel is
quite different from those previously considered, specific
measurements are needed. For mine tunnels, the variation of
path loss as a function of frequency from 2 GHz to 5 GHz is
studied by Chehri et al. [2012], and a frequency domain
autoregressive model was developed. Various communica-
tion links were also considered, including both line of sight
(LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) scenarios [Chehri and Fortier,
2006]. Last, for a road tunnel, the statistics for the electro-
magnetic field variation has been deduced from measure-
ments made in an arched tunnel, which is the usual shape of
road and railway tunnels [Molina-Garcia-Pardo et al.,
2009].
[5] In the case of transmission in a rich scattering envi-
ronment, Time Reversal (TR) signal processing, usually
applied to acoustics [Fink et al., 2000], was recently
extended to electromagnetic waves [Lerosey et al., 2004,
2005]. One of the main objectives is to focus the energy on
1
Information Technologies and Communications Department, Technical
University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
2
IEMN/TELICE, University of Lille, Villeneuve dAscq, France.
Copyright 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.
0048-6604/12/2011RS004893
RADIO SCIENCE, VOL. 47, RS1009, doi:10.1029/2011RS004893, 2012
RS1009 1 of 9
the intended user while minimizing its interference to other
users. It may be of great interest for multiuser communica-
tion and indoor environments containing multiple wireless
communication nodes [Barton et al., 2007]. A specific
application using TR to enhance data communication in
ventilation ducts, thus in a guided structure, is reported by
Henty [2006].
[6] The idea of combining UWB and TR to take benefit
from the multipath propagation in indoor channels has been
proposed [Naqvi et al., 2010; Pajusco and Pagani, 2009].
Another example of performances of TR UWB is given by
Liu et al. [2008], based on typical IEEE UWB channel model
parameters. A theoretical study of TR-UWB for train-to-
wayside communication, and based on a software tool sim-
ulating the propagation in a rectangular tunnel, was presented
by Saghir et al. [2009a], while modified-orthogonal wave-
forms for ensuring multiple access communications are dis-
cussed by Saghir et al. [2009b]. System architecture of a
communication-based train control in tunnel is also presented
in these papers emphasizing that both high resolution train
location and a low probability of interception of the data to
non-intentional receivers can be achieved. It must also be
outlined that the guided structure of the tunnel leads to a
small path loss which is thus not prohibitive for implement-
ing UWB for medium range communication [Molina-
Garcia-Pardo et al., 2009].
[7] Since, to our knowledge, there is a lack of experi-
mental analysis of TR-UWB in tunnels for a wide commu-
nication range, measurements have been carried out in a
frequency band extending from 2.8 to 5 GHz and for dis-
tances between the transmitter (Tx) and the receiver (Rx)
varying from 50 m up to 500 m. Time domain characteristics
of the received signal were deduced from measurements in
the frequency domain through inverse Fourier transform.
The objective of this measurement campaign was, on the one
hand, to experimentally characterize UWB propagation in
such environment and, on the other hand, to deduce some
features of a TR link and information on the outcome of
using TR impulse radio in tunnels, not necessarily fulfilling
the assumption of a rich scattering environment. Indeed, the
tunnel behaving as an oversized waveguide with lossy walls,
the channel characteristics vary along the tunnel and one can
expect that the spatial focusing gain and the temporal
focusing gain will also be dependent on the distance Tx
Rx. This aspect will be studied by considering either a
Single Input Single Output (SISO) or a Multiple Input
Single Output (MISO) configuration.
[8] This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 briefly
recalls the methodology of the UWB frequency domain
measurement campaign carried out on a straight road tunnel
in a frequency range extending from 2.8 to 5 GHz. Results
of the mean path loss, small scale fading and delay spread
are summarized in section 3. Typical waveforms of received
pulses and correlation between signals received at different
locations, are presented and analyzed in section 4. The
concepts of SISO-TR and MISO-TR are briefly reviewed in
section 5, the remaining part being devoted to the charac-
terization and main features of the TR channel, such as delay
spread and focusing gain. Section 6 summarizes the con-
clusions of this study.
2. Description of the Measurement Campaign
[9] Measurements took place in a straight arched tunnel,
3 km long, shown in Figure 1. Its transverse section was
semicircular and the diameter of the cylindrical part was
8.6 m. The maximum height was 6.1 m at the center of the
tunnel. The tunnel was nearly free of obstacles like road
signs, lamps, cables, etc. Furthermore, the roughness of the
walls was rather low, on the order of few cm.
[10] The tunnel was closed to traffic and consequently the
channel can be considered as stationary during the experi-
ments. The transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) antennas
were wideband conical antennas, their gain being nearly flat
over the bandwidth of interest.
[11] Both Tx and Rx antennas were mounted on a rail,
placed at 1 m above ground and allowing their displacement,
controlled by a stepper motor, with a maximum distance of
33 cm. During this measurement campaign, these rails were
positioned perpendicular to the tunnel axis. The spatial step
in this transverse plane was 3 cm, corresponding to half a
wavelength at 5 GHz. This leads, for each axial distance d
between Tx and Rx and for each frequency, to a set of
144 values of the channel transfer function H. The axial step
was chosen to be equal to 4 m when 50 m < d < 206 m,
and to 6 m when 206 m < d < 498 m. The configuration
of these wideband measurements is shown in Figure 2.
[12] The channel sounder was based on a vector network
analyzer (VNA). The Rx antenna was directly connected to
one port of the VNA using a low attenuation coaxial cable
and a 30 dB low-noise amplifier. To be able to take mea-
surements up to 498 m, the signal of the Tx port of the VNA
was converted into an optical signal which was sent through
Figure 1. Straight road tunnel in which experiments were
conducted.
Figure 2. Configuration of the wideband measurements.
GARCIA-PARDO ET AL.: INVESTIGATION ON TR-UWB IN TUNNEL RS1009 RS1009
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fiber optics. It was then converted back to radio-frequency
and amplified, being the output power of 1 W. The fre-
quency step is 1.37 MHz from 2.8 to 5 GHz. Further details
concerning the experimental aspects of this study, e.g., the
calibration of the measurement system, are given by Molina-
Garcia-Pardo et al. [2009].
3. Mean Path Loss, Small Scale Fading,
and Delay Spread
[13] In narrow band communication systems, path loss is
frequency and distance dependent, while small scale fading
is due to the constructive and destructive interference of all
possible paths between Tx and Rx. For impulse radio UWB
signals, the most important characteristics are related to the
variation in the energy of the pulse and not of its individual
spectral components. Figure 3 gives the value of the UWB
measured path loss defined as the ratio of the Tx power to
the received power at a distance d, this ratio being averaged
over the whole frequency band (2.85 GHz) and over the
144 transverse positions of Tx and Rx. We clearly observe
the guiding effect of the tunnel, the additional attenuation
between 100 m and 500 m only being 4 dB. The variation
of experimental values of path loss can be modeled by the
d
0.55
law, as shown in Figure 3.
[14] To determine the characteristics of the small-scale
fading, we consider a rectangular grid containing successive
Rx positions [Garcia-Pardo et al., 2011]. The width of the
grid, i.e., its dimension along the transverse axis, is equal to
33 cm and corresponds to the maximum displacement of the
antenna in the transverse plane. Along the tunnel axis, we
consider 3 successive distances as shown in Figure 4. Thus
the length L of the grid is either 8 m or 12 m depending on
whether the distance d between Tx and Rx is smaller or
larger than 206 m, as explained in section 2. The standard
deviation (std) of the path loss in the rectangular grid, nor-
malized to its average value in this grid and thus expressed
in %, was calculated for successive values of d varying
between 50 m and 486 m and also by considering, for each
value of d, the 12 possible positions of the Tx antenna in the
transverse plane of the tunnel. It appears that std varies
between 8% and 20%, depending on the axial distance
between Tx and Rx. This means that there is almost no
fading as a result of interference and this is the same con-
clusion as in the case of propagation in a typical in-building
environment [Muqaibel et al., 2006; Molisch, 2009].
[15] In the time domain, the channel impulse response
(CIR) can be easily deduced from measurement results in the
frequency domain by applying an inverse Fourier transform.
In the time domain, an interesting parameter characterizing
the channel properties is the RMS delay spread D
s
defined as
the normalized second-order moment of the CIR. For each
axial distance d, the average delay spread is deduced from
the CIR calculated for each of the 12 12, i.e., 144, chan-
nels associated with the possible positions of the antennas in
the transverse plane. Numerical results show that D
s
decreases from 5 ns at 50 m to 23 ns at a greater distance.
This point will be treated in more detail in section 5 for
examining the role of a TR technique on the reduction of D
s
.
4. Time Dispersion and Spatial Correlation
[16] In this section, the change in the waveform of the
pulse propagating in the tunnel is first presented. Then the
Figure 3. Mean path loss versus distance.
Figure 4. Successive positions of Rx for calculating the
standard deviation of the path loss. L = 8 m for d 200 m
and L = 12 m for 206 m d 486 m.
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correlation coefficient between signals received at different
locations is calculated to get an idea of the correlation
distance.
4.1. Transmitted and Received Waveform
[17] As previously outlined in section 2, the complex
channel transfer function was measured in the frequency
domain between 2.8 and 5 GHz. The equivalent transmitted
pulse is represented in Figure 5a. It has been obtained by
applying on the complex transfer function, measured in the
frequency domain, a Hamming window and an inverse
Fourier transform. The maximum amplitude of the pulse is
normalized to 1 mV. The pseudo-carrier frequency corre-
sponds to the center of the frequency band under analysis
(3.9 GHz). Examples of the received signal waveform at a
distance of 50 m, 200 mand 498 mare given in Figures 5b5d.
To avoid time shift due to the propagation delay, the origin of
the time axis in this figure, and in the following figures, is
quite arbitrary.
[18] At 50 m, we observe a first pulse, which includes the
direct path, and which has a peak amplitude of 3 10
4
V.
Then, there is a series of other delayed corresponding to
multipath propagation. For a delay of 30 ns, the maximum
amplitude of the pulse is 0.7 10
4
V, which is not still
negligible, referred to the amplitude of the strongest pulse.
At d = 200 m, the first received pulse has a width of about
2 ns and has nearly the same amplitude and shape as that
obtained at 50 m, but the amplitudes of the delayed pulses
are very small. This result can be explained from a theoret-
ical modeling of the propagation in a straight tunnel, based
on a ray theory [Molina-Garcia-Pardo et al., 2008b]. Due to
the finite bandwidth (even if it is equal to 2.1 GHz), inter-
ferences between rays reflecting on the tunnel walls occur.
The total signal can be arbitrary put in the sum of two con-
tributions: on the one hand the direct path and rays reflecting
on the walls with a grazing angle of incidence and, on the
other hand, rays experiencing many reflections on the walls.
It numerically appears from the theoretical model that, for a
distance between the transmitter and the receiver on the order
of 200 m, destructive interference occurs between rays of
high order reflection, leading in the time domain to delayed
pulses of small amplitude. This critical distance of 200 m in
our case, of course depends on the tunnel geometry.
[19] For a distance equal to 498 m, the curve plotted in
Figure 5d shows a high multipath density, but within a short
time delay, of about 10 ns. Indeed at large distance, the main
contribution to the signal is due to rays propagating nearly
parallel to the tunnel axis [Molina-Garcia-Pardo et al.,
2008b]. It is thus interesting to determine the correlation
function between signals received at different locations to be
able to interpret the results which would be obtained with
TR techniques.
4.2. Transverse Correlation
[20] For an axial distance d and for a given position i
of the Tx antenna, one can compute the correlation r(d, i, j)
in the transverse plane, between the signal received by
Rx situated at j = 1, and the signal received at another
position j (Figure 4). Since the spatial step is 3 cm, the
correlation is thus calculated between two Rx antennas
whose spacing is x
j
= 3j (cm), with j varying from 1 to 11.
[21] For each spacing x
j
, the correlation was averaged over
the 12 positions i of the transmitter:
r d; x
j
_ _
r d; i; x
j
_ _
i
: i

1
[22] Results are presented in Figure 6 for three values of
d: 102, 314 and 498 m. The slope of the decrease of the
correlation coefficient is much greater at 102 m that at
498 m. If we consider a spacing of 12 cm, the correlation
coefficient is 0.5 for a distance of 102 m, but is still equal to
0.7 and 0.9 for a distance of 314 m and 498 m, respectively.
This result can be explained by the electromagnetic field
distribution in the transverse plane. Indeed, as the transverse
dimensions of the tunnel are much larger than the wave-
length, the tunnel behaves as an oversized waveguide and
Figure 5. Waveforms of (a) the transmitted pulse, and (bd) of the received signals at different distances.
GARCIA-PARDO ET AL.: INVESTIGATION ON TR-UWB IN TUNNEL RS1009 RS1009
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supports the propagation of hybrid modes [Mahmoud,
2005]. However, high order modes suffer large attenuation
when the distance d increases. Since the field distribution in
a transverse plane is the sum of the individual contribution
of the modes, one can expect to get a more coherent trans-
verse field far away from the transmitter. The correlation
coefficient is also related to the angular dispersion of the
waves at the transmitter and receiver. It is thus interesting to
mention that the power angular spectrum of the rays have
been deduced from experimental results using antenna
arrays both at the Tx and the Rx site, and by applying high
resolution algorithms [Garcia-Pardo et al., 2011, 2012].
The variations in the angle of departure and arrival of the
rays are quite similar. The angular spread decreases from 10
at 50 m from Tx to about 3 at 200 m and then remains
nearly constant beyond this distance.
4.3. Axial Correlation
[23] Due to experimental constraints, the spacing between
successive measurement points along the tunnel axis were
Dd = 4 m or 6 m, depending on the distance d. This axial
step Dd is thus not small enough to clearly point out the
continuous decrease of the correlation coefficient versus the
antenna spacing.
[24] However, it is interesting to point out the variation of
the average correlation between points situated at d and d +
Dd, when d varies from 50 m to 498 m. This average cor-
relation is defined, as for the transverse correlation, by:
r d; d Dd r i; d; d Dd i; i h 2
where i denotes the position of a Tx antenna. The results
plotted in Figure 7 show that in the first zone, i.e., when d
varies from 50 m to 206 m and Dd = 4 m, the correlation
coefficient varies from 0.4 to 0.9.
[25] The high value of the correlation coefficient around
d = 200 m can be explained by a strong attenuation of the
multipath components as previously outlined. In the second
zone of measurement, i.e., when 250 m < d < 498 m and
Dd = 6 m, the correlation increases from 0.7 to 0.8. The
average increase of the correlation coefficient between 50 m
and 500 m, can be explained, as in the case of the correlation
in the transverse plane, by the decrease of the number of
modes propagating at large distances from the transmitter.
5. Time-Reversal in Tunnel Environment
5.1. Principle of UWB Time Reversal
[26] Let us first consider the Single-Input Single-Output
(SISO) configuration, with a single antenna being used at the
Tx site and at the Rx site. The implementation of TR involves
the previous estimation of the CIR. Let us assume a bidirec-
tional and stationary channel where the transmitter and receiver
are separated by a distance d
0
. Let us also assume that the CIR
h(d
0
, t) has been estimated. This response can then be inverted
and conjugated, h*(d
0
, t), and used as the pre-coding of the
transmitted UWB pulse [Lerosey et al., 2004, 2005]. Note that
in our case of Impulse Radio (IR) UWB, the CIR is real and the
conjugate operation is not required. If the transmitted pulse is
noted p(t), the received signal at any distance d from the
transmitter, y
TR
(d, t) can be expressed as follows:
y
TR
d; t p t h
*
d
0
; t
_ _
h d; t
p t h
*
d
0
; t h d; t
_ _
p t h
eq
d; t : 3
The equivalent CIR, using TR is thus given by:
h
eq
d; t h
*
d
0
; t h d; t : 4
[27] Since in our study of propagation in tunnels, mea-
surements were carried out in the frequency domain, (3) can
also be written as:
y
TR
d; t IFFT P
*
f H
*
d
0
; f H d; f
_ _
: 5
In this formula, P( f ) is the frequency content of the trans-
mitted pulse, and H(d
0
, f ) and H(d, f ) are the complex
passband transfer functions for both positive and negative
frequencies, deduced from the measurement results.
[28] In practical systems, rather than evaluating the
intrinsic channel transfer function, the pre-coding signal
used at the transmission site is the real channel impulse
response h(d
0
, t) convolved with the pulse p(t) as a result of
Figure 6. Correlation in the transverse plane for different
axial distances.
Figure 7. Axial correlation coefficient versus distance d
between 2 points, 4 m apart (if d < 204 m) or 6 m apart
(if d > 204 m).
GARCIA-PARDO ET AL.: INVESTIGATION ON TR-UWB IN TUNNEL RS1009 RS1009
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a previous demand from the transmitter to the receiver.
Furthermore, to carry out a fair comparison of the received
signals with or without TR, the transmission power must be
the same in both cases. Taking these two aspects into account,
the received signal can be put in the following final form:
y
TR
d; t IFFT
P f P
*
f H
*
d
0
; f H d; f

P* f H* d
0
; f j j
2
_
_

_
_

_
: 6
[29] To increase the gain when using TR, a possible
solution which has already been investigated is to employ
multiple antenna transmission schemes, such as MISO [Qiu
et al., 2006; Kyritsi et al., 2004; Naqvi and El Zein, 2008]. If
there are M antennas at the Tx site, the received signal is the
coherent sum of all the TR signals at the target receiver and
can be expressed as:
y
TR
d; t IFFT

M
j1
P f
P
*
f H
j
*
d
0
; f

M P* f H
j
* d
0
; f

2
_ H
j
d; f
_

_
_

_
;
7
where H
j
(d
0
, f ) is the passband transfer function between
the transmitter j and the target receiver.
[30] In order to point out the benefits of using TR techni-
ques in tunnels, examples will first be given for three
different distances d between Tx and Rx: around 50 m and
500 m corresponding to the maximum and minimum
values of d in the experiments, and at around 200 m. This
particular distance has been chosen since in this zone the
delay spread reaches its minimum value, equal to 1.3 ns.
5.2. Spatial Focusing of SISO-TR
[31] One of the advantages of TR, pointed out in the lit-
erature, is that the signal can only be optimally received by
the target receiver associated with the CIR used in the pre-
coding technique. In order to outline this spatial focusing,
we first consider the case of an optimal pre-coding, i.e.,
when the CIR h(d
0
, t) has been estimated at the location of
the receiving point (d = d
0
). The signal obtained in this case
with SISO-TR and at a distance d = 50 m is plotted in
Figure 8a. Let us now assume that the receiver moves to d =
54 m and then to d = 58 m but by keeping the CIR at 50 m
for pre-coding. Since the axial correlation coefficient is
equal to 0.4 between two points 4 m apart (Figure 7), the
focusing effect of the TR no longer appears.
5.3. Temporal Focusing: Comparison Between
SISO-TR and MISO-TR
[32] Before extracting some TR characteristics from all
measurement results, it is interesting to present typical
waveforms of the received signal. It is presumed in this
section that the pre-coding is optimum, i.e., it uses the
channel estimation at the receiving point. This means that
in (6) d = d
0
. As an example, Figure 9a indicates the
waveform of the signal at 50 m with SISO TR. For this last
configuration, TR is equivalent to a coherent summation of
all paths, giving rise to an increase in the Rx power at t = 0,
and a decrease of the side lobes. All quantitative aspects will
be considered in section 5.4.
[33] An illustration of the application of MISO TR is
given in Figure 9b. Four Tx antennas have been considered
in this case, the spacing between each antenna being 9 cm.
This corresponds to the maximum possible spacing in our
experiments. Consequently, only one Tx virtual array can be
considered. Comparing Figures 9a and 9b shows for MISO
TR, a gain factor of around 2 on the peak value of the
strongest signal is observed. As already mentioned, this is
due to the coherent addition of the peaks from each branch in
the MISO TR response. It has been shown that the gain
factor on the peak of the channel response with MISO TR is
Figure 8. Received signal with TR: (a) d = 50 m, (b) d = 54 m but using the CIR at 50 m, and (c) d = 58 m
but using the CIR at 50 m.
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M
p
higher than the peak average over all the M SISO cases
[Zhou et al., 2006].
[34] Last, waveforms of the signal received at a distance of
200 m and 498 m are plotted in Figures 9c9f. At 200 m, we
have already mentioned in paragraph 4.1. that the delayed
multipath components of the signal without TR are strongly
attenuated, the pulse having duration of about 2 ns. There-
fore, the benefit in terms of a reduction of the signal spread
and in terms of gain brought about by TR is not significant,
as can be shown by comparing Figures 5c and 9c. At 498 m,
the received pulse without TR being slightly wider than at
200 m, the main interest of using SISO TR or MISO TR is to
increase the peak value of the received pulse.
[35] Curves presented in Figure 9 clearly show that the
improvement which could be expected on the temporal
focusing by using TR, is dependent on the distance d
between the transmitter and the receiver inside the tunnel.
The next paragraph is thus devoted to the variation of the
focusing characteristics versus this distance.
5.4. Decrease of the Delay Spread and Peak-to-Peak
Gain With SISO-TR and MISO-TR
[36] Various figures of merit are proposed in the literature
to evaluate the main features of TR. The first possible metric
is the average RMS delay spread (D
s
) describing the temporal
compression of the signal. The three curves in Figure 10
have been plotted for the following configurations: SISO
without TR, SISO TR and MISO TR. For MISO, the number
M of transmitting elements is, as previously, equal to 4.
[37] For each distance d, D
s
was averaged over the
12 positions of the Rx antenna in the transverse plane and
over the 12 positions of the Tx antenna in the SISO case, and
over the 12 positions of the Rx antenna in the MISO case.
[38] At a distance of 50 m, D
s
is on the order of 5 ns, and
reduces to 3.5 ns with SISO TR. A noticeable improvement is
obtained for MISO TR, with D
s
decreasing to 1 ns. However,
the significance of using TR becomes small at large distances,
since the average delay spread for the 3 configurations is quite
similar. Indeed in this case, the transmitting bandwidth is not
sufficiently important to profit from the multipath propaga-
tion, the delay spread without TR being only 2 ns. To clearly
indicate the reduction of D
s
by using SISOTRand MISOTR,
the reduction factors of delay spread, noted R
SISO
_
TR
and
R
MISO_TR
respectively and expressed in percentages, have
been computed from the following expressions:
R
SISO

TR
d; i; j 100
D
S
d; i; j D
STR
d; i; j
D
S
d; i; j
_ _
8
R
MISO

TR
d; j 100
hD
S
d; i; j i
i
D
SMISOTR
d; j
hD
S
d; i; j i
i
_ _
: 9
Figure 9. Waveform of the received signal at different distances with SISO TR and MISO TR.
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[39] In (8) and (9), D
S
(d, i, j), D
S-TR
(d, i, j) and D
S-MISOTR
(d, i, j) are the RMS delay spreads, without TR, with SISO-
TR and MISO TR respectively, and calculated at an axial
distance d. The indices i and j characterize the location of Tx
and Rx in the transverse plane respectively (Figure 4).
[40] The curves in Figure 11 correspond to the Cumulative
Distribution Function (CDF) of R
SISO
_
TR
and R
MISO_TR
.
Two zones have been considered: One close to Tx (50 m <
d < 100 m), and the other far away from Tx (400 m < d <
500 m). For a probability of 0.5, the reduction of D
s
with
SISO TR is only 15% in the near zone and 5% in the
far zone. Furthermore, there is even a small probability that
D
s
slightly increases, corresponding to a negative value of
the delay spread reduction. This occurs in a zone of the
tunnel where the number of multipath components is small,
such as when d = 200 m, as shown in Figure 10. This
absence of reduction of D
s
with TR alone is due to the
autocorrelation operation which nearly doubled the dura-
tion of the impulse response. With MISO TR and for a
probability of 0.5, the delay spread reduction is 75% in the
near zone but decreases to 20% at large distances from
the transmitter.
[41] For a simple receiver picking up the peak energy of
the impulse response, another interesting metric is the
focusing gain, also called the peak to peak gain, noted G
p2p
and defined as the ratio of the strongest tap power received
with TR or without TR [Naqvi and El Zein, 2008; Pajusco
and Pagani, 2009]. It is thus given by:
G
p2p
d
0
10 log
10
max
t
y
TR
d
0
; t j j
2
_ _
max
t
y d
0
; t j j
2
_ _
_
_
_
_
; 10
where y
TR
(d
0
, t) and y(d
0
, t) denotes the received signal
amplitude using TR and not using TR, respectively. The
curves in Figure 12 represent the variation of G
p2p
versus
distance, for TR and for 4 1 MISO TR, respectively. We
note that the gain with SISO TR is between 2 and 6 dB,
except in the zone situated at 200 m from the transmitter
where the gain becomes negligible, as already outlined.
When using MISO TR, G
p2p
is 6 dB better than for SISO
TR, since all the energies from different elements coherently
add up.
6. Conclusion
[42] The novelty in this paper, dealing with TR-UWB, lies
mainly in the nature of the environment studied and which
consists of a tunnel. Indeed, the channel characteristics are
quite different than in indoor environment because the
guiding structure leads to a low mean average path loss and a
correlation between received signals which strongly depends
on the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. We
have seen that, in the 2.85 GHz band, the average attenu-
ation between 50 m and 500 m is of about 4 dB. At a dis-
tance less than 100 m from the transmitter, the signals
received at different locations in the transverse plane of the
tunnel are rapidly uncorrelated, the correlation coefficient
being equal to 0.4 if the receiving points are 9 cm apart.
However, the correlation increases at large distances of the
Figure 11. CDF of R
SISO_TR
and R
MISO_TR
for short range
(d < 100 m) and for long range (400 m < d < 500 m)
communication.
Figure 10. Average RMS delay spread: SISO without TR,
SISO TR, and MISO TR.
Figure 12. Peak to peak gain for SISO TR and MISO TR
configurations.
GARCIA-PARDO ET AL.: INVESTIGATION ON TR-UWB IN TUNNEL RS1009 RS1009
8 of 9
transmitter due to the attenuation of high order propagating
modes, which leads to a decrease in the number of modes
and thus of the diversity.
[43] The performance of TR technique applied to impulse
radio UWB channels has been analyzed both for SISO and
MISO configurations. As already outlined in previous
papers published on this subject, the potential advantages of
TR-UWB are, for example, spatial focusing reducing the
interferences caused by multiusers and high resolution in
mobile locations. These properties could be interesting for
communication-based train control systems. In a tunnel
configuration, it has been shown that SISO TR does not
appreciably reduce the delay spread. In contrast, when the
distance between the transmitter and the receiver does not
exceed 250 m, the delay spread with MISO TR is reduced
from a few ns without TR to 1 ns.
[44] The peak to peak power gain with SISO TR is 3 dB
on average, except in a zone of the tunnel where the number
of multipath components becomes small, this zone being
situated at about 200 m from the transmitter in our tunnel
configuration. If 4 antennas are used on the transmitting site,
the peak to peak gain increases by a factor of 2 compared to
SISO TR, as it would be expected from previous works on
MISO TR, and reaches 10 dB.
[45] Despite the guiding effect of the tunnel, leading to a
propagation of the waves nearly along the tunnel axis, i.e., to
rays reflecting on the tunnel walls with a grazing angle of
incidence, MISO TR can be an interesting solution to
improve the performance of the link.
[46] Acknowledgments. This work was supported by the Ministerio
de Educacin y Ciencia, Spain (TEC2010-20841-C04-03), and the Funda-
cin Sneca of Murcia, Spain (08818/PI/08, 14809/EFPI/10 and 06640/
FPI/07), by the European FEDER funds, the Region Nord Pas de Calais
and the French Ministry of Research, as part of the International Campus
on Safety and Intermodality in Transportation Systems (CISIT) project
(France).
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