Radio Propagation Analysis of Industrial Scenarios within the Context of Ultra-Reliable Communication

Abstract

One of the 5G use cases, known as ultra-reliable communication (URC), is expected to support very low packet error rate on the order of 10 −5 with a 1 ms latency. In an industrial scenario, this would make possible replacing wired connections with wireless for controlling critical processes. Industrial environments with large metallic machinery and concrete structures can lead to deep shadowing and severe fading in the radio propagation channel, and thus pose a challenge for achieving the outage levels in connection with URC. In this paper, we present and analyze the large-scale propagation characteristics of two different industrial environments -open production space and dense factory clutter -based on measurements conducted at 2.3 and 5.7 GHz By including a large number of spatially distributed samples, as per our experimental approach, we show the importance of properly characterizing the large-scale fading outage for URC. For instance, we show that based on a simple one-slope distance dependent path loss model, the conventional log-normal model for large-scale shadow fading is by far too simple for this environment. Our results show that at the 10 −4 percentile, the tail of the shadow fading distribution can deviate by up to 10-20 dB from the log-normal model with respect to the average NLOS values (around 6 dB and 8 dB at 2.3 and 5.7 GHz, respectively). The simplicity of the one-slope path loss model, and its ability as we show, to express the trends with respect to scenarios, frequencies, and antenna heights, makes it an attractable option. However, there is a need for further experimental insight, possibly in combination with deterministic analysis, to get a better understanding of the large-scale fading for the study of URC in industrial environments.

Towards 6G in-X Subnetworks With Sub-Millisecond Communication Cycles and Extreme Reliability

“…A recent industrial channel measurements study [63] also reported a range of values from 0.98 to 3.0 and 2.53 dB to 5.23 dB for ε and σ s , respectively. Similar parameter values were also reported in [57], [58].…”

“…with P tx denoting the transmit power and LS, the large scale propagation effect, embedding the effect of path-loss and shadowing. We consider the close-in (CI) free space reference distance models [56] which has been used extensively for analyzing path-loss and shadow fading in industrial channel measurements (see e.g., [57], [58]). Thus,…”

NOMA-Based 802.11n for Industrial Automation

“…It is assumed that the nodes are randomly distributed along the network. The path loss model includes the free space path losses plus a shadowing component that is characterized with a log-normal distribution with mean zero and σ = 6 dB [43]. A summary of the parameters is presented in TABLE III.…”

An Agile Multi-Node Multi-Antenna Wireless Channel Sounding System

“…To illustrate the type of factory clutter explored in the measurements, a picture of the scenario and the associated floor plan with the measurement locations are displayed in Figure 12. Further details about the scenario and the measurement campaign can be found in [40].…”