Short Description

In recent years, an increasing number of small wearable devices (for example smart-watches) that include RF chips have become available. This results in the necessity to have good knowledge of the influence the human body on the transmitted signals to ensure functionality. In positioning for example, a lost direct path due to body shadowing can destroy important position related information that could be extracted from the transmitted signals. It was already shown that reflections can be used to improve the positioning accuracy by incorporating knowledge about the environment. While massive MIMO systems are already well established, more recently extra large MIMO (XL-MIMO) systems have become of interest. XL-MIMO systems share similarities with massive MIMO systems, but aim at exploiting an extra large aperture - the array antennas cover a much larger region compared to classic MIMO systems - hence the name. Consequently, the array dimensions of such an XL-MIMO sytem are approaching the range of some meters. While this increases the theoretically achievable resolution for positioning, it also increases the computational complexity of algorithms as well as the used propagation models.

As the human body can shadow components, the goal of this project is to quantify these effects in the context of XL-MIMO systems. Within the scope of this project, you start by performing a small measurement campaign to collect signals transmitted between a virtual XL-MIMO array and a single antenna in close proximity to a user dummy. You will perform channel characterization tasks, with the possibility to extend the work to positioning and tracking algorithms.

Key Tasks

• Perform signal measurements with one antenna in close proximity to a user dummy
• Evaluate the measurements and analyze various features (e.g., received signal strength, delay spread, …)
• Formulate a channel model for human body scattering, capturing important effects for XL-MIMO systems
• Optional: extension to positioning and tracking algorithms

Your Profile

• Interest in wireless communications, signal modeling and localization
• Basic knowledge in Matlab programming (Python is possible as well)