Enhancement of MIMO-UWB Communications in Underground Mine Environments

Improving the quality of communication of multiple-input multiple-output ultra-wideband (MIMO-UWB) systems in mining applications, is as compulsory as in conventional wireless channels. The solution proposed herein alleviates the channel fading through the incorporation of the equalization mechanism prior to performing UWB communication over this channel. The effect of mining machinery is also taken into account. The paper investigates two equalization schemes, namely the Zero Forcing (ZF) and Maximum Likelihood (ML), where the superior performance of the latter technique is demonstrated through simulation results.