Scenario in urban environment – connectivity analysis when nodes in the scenario are equipt with A-waveform or double (A- and B-) waveforms

Authors:

  • Karina Fors
  • Björn Johansson
  • Elisabeth Löfsved
  • Jan Nilsson
  • Mattias Sköld

Publish date: 2009-06-25

Report number: FOI-R--2755--SE

Pages: 26

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • urban scenario
  • scenario
  • connectivity
  • relay node

Abstract

In order to be able to study the performances of tactical communication systems, a number of scenarios have previously been worked out by FOI with the support of the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF). These scenarios have increased the understanding of the possibilities as well as the limitations of the different technical solutions and have played an important role for understanding how to specify the necessary requirements on future communication systems. In this report, an urban scenario is considered. In this scenario, both the tactical behavior and physical limitations are different from those in previous studied scenarios. The used urban scenario was worked out together with the ground warfare school "MSS Kvarn" and is described in an earlier report. The previously reported results for the urban scenario can be summarized as follows; full connectivity of the network cannot be maintained by using one waveform only on the 300 MHz band. To improve the connectivity additional nodes (relay nodes with the same waveform) where added. The added relay nodes consisted of elevated nodes (stationary and mobile) and nodes on the ground. By an elevated relay node (e.g., an UAV) full connectivity was obtained. However, by using relay nodes on the ground too many was needed (alternatively they had to be placed on very good location) to obtain full connectivity. Therefore, the use of relay nodes on the ground was judged not to be a good solution. The focus of this report is to investigate another option, which is to equip some of the nodes with double waveforms, one on 300 MHz and one on 50 MHz. The results show that by using double waveforms in some of the nodes it is possible to obtain full connectivity. In fact, it was possible in this particular scenario to find an "optimal node" to equip with double waveforms. That is, only this node required double waveforms to obtain full connectivity. Clearly, in practice it is almost impossible to know in advance which the optimal node is. However, by using double waveforms in at least one node in each of the groups, a less sensitive solution is obtained and the connectivity become quite good. The scenario example investigated gives us a good hint of what that can be expected. Nevertheless, to be able to better assess how many nodes, and which nodes that have to be equipped with double waveforms in different situations, more scenarios should be investigated. Moreover, it would be desirable with better (more efficient and accurate) wave propagation tools to calculate the path losses on the links in the scenario.