Measurement Uncertainty, Channel Simulation, and Disturbance Characterization of an Over-the-Air Multi-Probe Setup for Cars at 5.9 GHz

Over-the-air multi-probe setups provide an efficient
way to characterize the performance of today’s advanced wireless
communication systems. In this paper the measurement uncertainty
of such a setup using a car as a test object is characterized
through three experiments: measurement system analysis, channel
sounder measurements, and probe coupling measurements.
Four issues were in focus for the analysis; precision, realization
of the wireless communication channel, coupling between the
probes, and the influence of the test object size. The analysis
shows that a large test object such as a car in an over-the-air
multi-probe ring will affect the measurement uncertainty, but
only to a small degree. The measurement uncertainty expressed
as expanded uncertainty was below +/-1dB, a level that would
not violate best practice total uncertainty levels for comparable
over-the-air methods.