Effect of radio bandwidth on multipath clustering

Abstract

Detail knowledge of time dispersion characteristics of radio multipath propagation channel is essential for successful design of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) systems. The multipath-clustering phenomenon, which is caused by the fact that scatterers tend to group together, may become one of the dominant factors affecting the delay spread especially in the long delay situation. In this paper, a method based on Turin's A-K model is proposed to investigate and estimate the effect of radio bandwidth on the multipath clustering. It is found that the signal of larger bandwidth will observe stronger multipath clustering phenomenon because more paths can be resolved due to a finer time resolution. Our finding has been validated by the measurement result of 1.95 GHz radio propagation in metropolitan and suburban areas. It is also proposed that the A-K process of a wider-bandwidth signal can determine that of a narrower-bandwidth signal.