Use of reverberation chamber to simulate the power delay profile of a wireless environment

Multipath propagation environment effects, such as frequency-selective fading, have a strong impact on the quality of a wireless channel. For example, multipath can impact bit error rate (BER) differently from Gaussian noise. For testing wireless devices/systems in these multipath environments it is imperative to have a reliable, controllable, and statistically repeatable measurement facility. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the reverberation chamber can be used to simulate different multipath propagation environments. Channel characteristics such as power-delay profile, RMS-delay spread, and the Rician K-factor are examined. Results for different chamber configurations (e.g., loading of the chamber, antenna positions, etc.) are compared and their effects discussed. Results achieved inside a chamber are compared with those obtained in an actual industrial environment.