Broadband Propagation Channel Measurements and Modeling in an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant

Deploying a wireless communication infrastructure in a complex industrial environment requires a proper understanding of the propagation channel behaviors. This paper presents measurements, characterization and modeling results of the propagation channel for different use cases in an aircraft assembly line. The measurement campaigns were performed at 2.4 GHz and 5.4 GHz with 100 MHz and 500 MHz bandwidths using a vector network analyzer and a virtual array technique. The results show a rich multipath propagation phenomenon which is characterized by a high Delay Spread ranging from 47 ns to 237 ns. The power delay profiles reveal two different shapes according to the transmitter and receiver link conditions. The diffuse multipath component and the double-exponential models fit well the measured power delay profiles with high correlation rates ranging between 79% and 96%.