Experimental study of propagation characteristic for maritime wireless communication

Wireless communication is one of the most important communication system at sea. But insufficient knowledge of radio channel characteristics over sea limits the development of wideband wireless communication systems for maritime applications. In maritime communication, the presence of sea and nearby islands gives rise to multi-path fading. Due to the difficulties to determine base station position for maritime wireless communication and the cost of satellite communications in the marine environment, the analysis of propagation characteristics on coast and sea is very essential for broadband wireless communication. An experimental study on wave propagation in Korea West Sea at 2.58 GHz is presented in this paper. Measurement setup and associated measurement procedure are described in section 2. while kfactor and propagation curve results are analyzed in the sections 3. and 4. respectively.