Furniture effects on the wideband indoor radio channel at microwave frequencies

Abstract Typically, ray‐tracing indoor simulators take into account the structural elements of the environment, but not other objects, such as furniture. Radio‐channel characteristics in empty and furnished environments have been measured along linear paths by using a wideband swept‐technique‐based sounder in a band around 5.8 GHz. Wideband parameters, such as delay spread and coherence bandwidth, exhibit important variations when the room is furnished as opposed to the situation when it is empty. Such effects are important, so radio network designers should modify their predictions to guarantee that the performance of wideband digital communication systems will be correct. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 29: 336–340, 2001.