Experimental Characterization of the UWB Channel for an Underground Mining Vehicle

In this paper, an experimental characterization of the ultra-wideband (UWB) channel for an underground mining vehicle is presented. A comparison of the results obtained inside and outside a mining environment is done. The frequency domain channel measurements have been carried out in the 2 GHz to 6 GHz frequency band. The pass loss model is extracted for the measurements inside and outside of the underground mine. The path loss exponents in both scenarios are found to be around 2. A simple statistical model is proposed for the delay spread and, in both cases, there are no relations between the delay spread and the transmitter receiver distance. Aikake information criterion is used as a goodness of fit for comparison of different statistical distributions to the delay spread of the vehicle inside the mine. The reflective nature of the vehicle environment is shown in the power delay profile and with the Ricean K-factor.