The student Joseba Osa Arozena obtained an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE grade with International Doctorate mention
The student Joseba Osa Arozena obtained an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE grade with International Doctorate mention
The student Joseba Osa Arozena obtained an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE grade with International Doctorate mention
- Thesis title: Reliable industrial communications over mmWave bands
Court:
- Presidency: Pablo Angueira Buceta (UPV/EHU)
- Vocal: Hans Niclas Björsell (Högskolan i Gävle)
- Vocal: Xavier Vilajosana Guillén (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
- Vocal: Richard Candell (NIST)
- Secretary: Iban Barrutia Inza (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
Abstract:
Communication systems are a key enabling technology for the industry 4.0 revolution, since they provide the ability to exchange information between different devices. This makes tasks as remote monitoring and control of processes possible, adding a new degree of flexibility to the existing industrial facilities. The communications of this kind of use cases differ significantly with the ones that belong to more generic scenarios as home or office, since aspects as reliability and latency are critical to ensure the proper operation of industrial processes. In order to comply with the requirements, wired solutions were introduced first because they can meet the demands using relatively simple implementations thanks to the use of a dedicated medium. However, wireless solutions offer several advantages compared to the wired counterpart such as a lower cost in deployment and maintenance, flexibility to re-organize factory plants or the ability to operate in moving or rotating elements. This is why the implementation of wireless industrial communications is an actively discussed topic in both academic and industrial fields. However, as wireless communications use a shared medium that is prone to interference and noise, none of the existing proposals meet the most stringent requirements defined in industrial use cases.
In this thesis, the use of the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band was identified as a possible cause of this lack of reliability, since most of nowadays solutions operate over this license-free frequency band that is already saturated with other applications and interference is unavoidable. In order to overcome this issue, the use of the 60 GHz mmWave spectrum is proposed as a possible alternative for the radio access, as it offers several advantages as a higher bandwidth or a far less saturated medium. Since the propagation of electromagnetic signals in the mmWave spectrum has not been widely characterized in industrial settings, this thesis is focused on expanding the existing knowledge in this particular field. The objective is to provide the required evidence to determine if the proposed solution is a valid candidate to achieve reliable industrial communications over a wireless medium.
As for the contributions, a cost-effective double directional channel sounder that measures propagation in the mmWave spectrum was created first with the aim of characterizing industrial facilities. Two different measurement campaigns were carried out after with this equipment, where the key propagation metrics were obtained within two workshops and a pit oven from a steel company. A stochastic channel model that represents the observed propagation was developed then to be able to represent it in network simulation tools. At last, the performance that a commercial mmWave standard can offer in a typical industrial network was analysed to assess the viability of the technology and identify possible improvements that can be done to the standard. Regarding the results, the analysed standard showed potential to cope with the most demanding industrial use cases, even if modifications are required to reach the desired performance.