Researchers Find Potential Path to Improve Radio Communications

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology may have found a way for radio signals to travel through areas like underground tunnels and above-ground building corridors, potentially helping to improve first response communications.

In an article on the Government Computer News website, Kathleen Hickey says the Justice and Homeland Security departments are funding the NIST research as a way to improve wireless communications for first responders. While radio transmissions are frequently difficult in tunnels and buildings, Hickey says the new data could lead to strategies for enhancing rescue communications in subways, mines and other structures.

“Researchers discovered that radio signals traveled much farther when sent at the optimal frequency through tunnels and corridors because the passages act like giant waveguides — structures that guide electromagnetic, light or sound waves,” Hickey says. “There are different types of waveguides for each type of wave. Waveguides are also built into integrated circuit wafers, antenna feed systems and optical fibers to strengthen radio signals.”

Lead author of the NIST report, Kate Remley, told Hickey that the results may help in the design of improved first responder wireless systems that could enable better control of search-and-rescue robots in subways. Some handheld radios used by emergency responders for voice communications already operate within the optimal range for a typical subway, between 400 MHz and 800 MHz. However, to improve video transmission would require a bandwidth of at least 1 MHz, and a regulatory change would be needed, Remley told Hickey.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/46259-1.html?topic=state-local