Visualization of Millimeter-wave Radio Signals Utilizing Measured Radio Channel Parameters

Radio waves are invisible to humans, yet visualization of radio waves is important for many purposes. In this work, two wideband channel sounding systems, i.e. one mechanical steering horn antenna based on turntable, and the other electronic steering phased-array antennas, are developed to record radio channel parameters at millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands 28-30 GHz. The measured radio channel parameters are then used to reconstruct the mmWave radio signal trajectories. Dedicated measurements are then designed, e.g. path blocking with humans and path generation with metallic reflector, to validate the reconstructed mmWave signal trajectories. Our validation measurements demonstrate that visualization of millimeter-wave radio signal paths is feasible based on a few key channel parameters, i.e. power, delay and angle per path, which are collected by the measurement systems. This work is based on an undergraduate student project carried out in Aalborg University, Denmark.