Dual‐Band Non‐Contacting Surface‐Wave Launcher for WLAN/Wi‐Fi 802.11 Signal Excitation Over Single‐Conductor Transmission Line

ABSTRACT

A novel design of dual‐band surface‐wave (SW) launcher for excitation and reception of the WLAN/Wi‐Fi 802.11 signal over single‐conductor transmission line (SCL), is presented in this paper. The dual‐band operation, at lower (2.4 GHz) and upper (5 GHz) frequency bands, is observed in S‐parameter simulation results. The SW‐launcher is fabricated and validated through measurements in an anechoic chamber as well as in a cluttered environment. The measured S ₁₁ ‐parameter is below −10 dB in both Wi‐Fi bands. The measured S ₂₁ ‐parameter peak is at −9.4 and −20.9 dB in the lower and upper bands, respectively, for 1 m launcher separation. The simulated S‐parameters are in good agreement with the measured results in the lower band. However, a shift is observed in the upper band, due to the fabrication inaccuracies, which can be minimized by employing advanced fabrication methods. The launcher performance is evaluated in data communication experiments with the ADALM Pluto SDR device and MATLAB. A color image of 197 MB size is encoded, OFDM modulated, and transmitted using the SW‐launcher over the SCL and received at another end. Experiments are performed in LOS and NLOS conditions, varying the frequency band and launcher distance. Minimum average error vector magnitude (EVM) is measured to be −30.18 and −22.10 dB in lower and upper bands, respectively. The launcher has a promising application in short and long‐distance power line communication using existing infrastructure.