Abstract:
In underground mine and road tunnels, multipath fading is much more severe than the terrestrial
wireless channels. To overcome the multipath fading in underground tunnels, MIMO (Multiple Input
Multiple Output) and Cooperative Communication systems can be utilized. Since the underground channel
characteristics are significantly different from those in terrestrial environments, the channel capacity
and the outage behavior of such systems need to be investigated based on underground tunnel channel
models, which has not been addressed by the research community yet. In this paper, the capacity
distribution and outage probability of MIMO and cooperative communication systems are investigated
in underground tunnel environments. Explicit formulas of the capacity distribution and outage probability
are developed as functions of environmental conditions and system configurations. Based on the capacity
and outage analysis in underground tunnels, the optimal MIMO antenna geometry design scheme is
proposed for MIMO systems; and the cooperative relay assignment protocol is developed for cooperative
communication systems. Simulations are conducted to validate the theoretical results.
