Adaptive Subcarrier Modulation for Indoor Public Safety Body-to-Body Networks

In this contribution, we present the Bit Error Rate characteristics for an indoor, wideband body-to-body channel between two firefighters when using IEEE 802.11 ac, which is proven a very suitable standard for future, wideband public safety networks. Moreover, the BER and throughput charac- teristics, when applying both transmission blocking, fixed and adaptive, subcarrier modulation are presented. These charac- teristics show an increased throughput when applying adaptive subcarrier modulation. We have conducted a wideband, indoor channel sounder campaign at 3.6 GHz with 120 MHz useful bandwidth, simulating real-life rescue operations performed by two simultaneously moving members of the Rapid Intervention Team. Both firefighters were equipped with low-profile, light- weight and energy-efficient Ultra Wideband Cavity-Backed slot antennas in Substrate Integrated Waveguide technology, unobtru- sively deployed inside the front and back sections of their jackets, providing 2 × 2 MIMO capability