Land-to-Ship Radio Channel Measurements over Sea at 2 GHz

A land-to-ship (L2S) radio channel measurement mission at 2.075 GHz has been established in Trondheim, Norway, being fully described in this paper. The transmitter (TX) was installed onboard the High Speed Craft (HSC) M/S "Trondheimsfjord I" and the receiver (RX) was located at the building in the harbor. A frequency chirp with 20 MHz bandwidth is emitted by the TX on the moving craft within a maximum distance of 15.5 km, the received signal being compressed and analyzed at the RX side. Results of processed data are presented, such as average power-delay profile and delay-Doppler spectrum. When the ship is close to the shore the number of reflections is high and relatively strong. On the open fjord, the line of sight (LOS) is dominant, and its Doppler corresponds to the speed of the ship. The Doppler spectrum has some components different from the speed of the ship that may come from reflections from the sea waves. These are 30-25 dB down from the LOS component and may correspond to typical speeds of the waves in the fjord. Even at 15 km distance the LOS is quite strong, and fading is modest. Thus we may conclude that WiMAX can experience good propagation conditions over sea and in fjords, and at distances of 15 km as long as a LOS component is present.