Impulse response characterization and space-time equalization requirements for fixed broadband wireless systems at 29.5 GHz

Recently, telecommunications service providers have shown heightened interest in providing broadband wireless access to fixed networks via millimeter wave radio transmission. The large amount of untapped bandwidth at millimeter wave frequencies has prompted advances in technologies such as LMDS, which are geared to operate in such high frequency bands.; Channels typically exhibit multipath propagation and tend to be frequency selective in nature causing different frequency components of the input signal to be attenuated and phase-shifted differently. This distortion of the transmitted signal leads to intersymbol interference (ISI) and causes bit errors at the receiver. Equalization compensates for ISI created by multipath.; The present study investigates the system performance benefits of employing decision feedback equalization and diversity combining through an analysis of the data recorded during a propagation measurement campaign in Parkwood Hills in Ottawa. The results will explore the space-time equalizer requirement for LMDS in a residential environment.