• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.364-369
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• 2012

This paper presents an experimental study on the radio propagation characteristics in subway tunnel at 18GHz frequency band which has been assigned to video transmission between train and wayside. The radio propagation tests are carried out in the subway tunnel of Seoul Metro using the antenna and communication devices of the prototype video transmission system. The measurement results show that 18GHz radio propagation in subway tunnel has smaller path loss than that of general outdoor radio environment. It is also cleared that the arch-type tunnels have smaller radio propagation losses than rectangular tunnels, and single track tunnels have smaller pass loss than double track tunnels. From the measurements, the radio propagation coverage is worked out as 520 meters. The curved tunnels which cannot have LOS communication between transmitter and receiver have large pass losses and fluctuation profile along distance. The radio propagation coverage along curved tunnels is worked out as 300 meters. These investigation results can be used to design the 18GHz radio transmission system for subway tunnel by providing the optimized wayside transmitter locations and handover algorithm customized to the radio propagation characteristics in subway tunnels.