Development of high resolution measurement system of angles of arrival of indoor multi-path waves and evaluation of its basic performance

In recent years, there has been a growing need for broadband indoor wireless communication systems such as wireless LAN (Local Area Network) systems. This trend has been driving efforts for developments of higher radio frequency bands such as millimeter wave band where large frequency bandwidth is available. One of the major subjects in the development of broadband indoor wireless communication systems is an investigation on indoor multi-path propagation characteristics which may significantly affect communication qualities and reliabilities. Our current research effort focuses on this subject. In the present work, as an initial step, we have developed a high resolution measurement system of Angles-Of-Arrival (AOA) of indoor multi-path waves at 30-GHz band, and experimentally evaluated its basic performance on the AOA estimation by applying the MUSIC algorithm to the propagation data measured in an artificially arranged two-wave multi-path environment. This paper reports these results along with explanations on the AOA estimation methods used in the data analysis