Ignacio Julio Garcia Zuazola

An easy to deploy street light control system based on wireless communication and LED technology.

This paper presents an intelligent streetlight management system based on LED lamps, designed to facilitate its deployment in existing facilities. The proposed approach, which is based on wireless communication technologies, will minimize the cost of investment of traditional wired systems, which always need civil engineering for burying of cable underground and consequently are more expensive than if the connection of the different nodes is made over the air. The deployed solution will be aware of their surroundings environmental conditions, a fact that will be approached for the system intelligence in order to learn, and later, apply dynamic rules. The knowledge of real time illumination needs, in terms of instant use of the street in which it is installed, will also feed our system, with the objective of providing tangible solutions to reduce energy consumption according to the contextual needs, an exact calculation of energy consumption and reliable mechanisms for preventive maintenance of facilities.

Non-Uniformly Distributed-Turns Coil Antenna for Enhanced H-Field in HF-RFID

A design study of coil antennas aimed to be used as Interrogators in high-frequency (HF) radio frequency identification (RFID) is presented. The magnetic field (H-field) of the coil is enhanced by defining optimally the number of turns of the antenna, and optimizing and exploiting the internal area of an initial coil. The distributed turns coil antennas are designed for highest possible H-field without compromising the Q-factor of the antenna with respect to an initial design. To achieve best solution, a non-uniformly distributed turns design is proposed and whose radiating elements are formulated accordingly. The analytical and simulated results show reasonable agreement to validate the designs. The enhanced H-field of the antenna shows an unconstrained Q-factor, indicates a potential rise to the interrogating coverage and as a result a higher efficient antenna.

Dual Purpose Near- and Far-Field UHF RFID Coil Antenna With Non-Uniformly Distributed-Turns

An Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) coil antenna with Non-uniformly Distributed-Turns and realized using a segmented-line (SL) is proposed. The Segmented-Line Non-uniformly Distributed-Turns Coil (SL-NDTC) uses non-uniformly distributed turns radii that have been optimized for reactive and radiative read performance. This leads to a dual purpose near- and far-field antenna in a single unit. Simulations show a more focused magnetic-field (H-field) distribution in the near field of the SL-NDTC compared to more conventional coils. Single and dual turn designs are compared to the SL-NDTC antenna to evidence enhanced near- and far-field performance in the latter.

Microcell MIMO RoF system using low cost array antennas and improved DFB matching lines

Dual-polarised microstrip flat panel antennas suited for radio-over-fibre (RoF) micro-cellular distribution systems are presented. The antenna units are intended to be low-cost and compact, provide reasonable gain, and serve the 4G-long term evolution (LTE) wireless band in a Manhattan scenario. A design study has been carried out to assess the effects of mutual coupling between the required sectors for the scenario. Return loss, isolation on dual ports, and radiation patterns are shown. Improved matching lines for optimum optical fibre link gains using cost/performance units are also introduced.

Towards a Traceability System Based on RFID Technology to Check the Content of Pallets within Electronic Devices Supply Chain

In the last few years there has been a growing interest in smart solutions capable of dealing with the traceability of products and materials to improve logistical processes. Most of the existing solutions have been designed without considering the difficulties of deploying traceability systems in the storehouses currently working, not dealing with specific needs, such as environment characteristics or time required to be handled by workers. In this paper, in order to test the viability of its application, a first prototype of a traceability system capable of checking the content of pallets loaded with electronic devices is presented. It is based on ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology using passive tags. A holistic approach has been adopted to design the system: it begins with a radioelectrical characterization of the environment where the check points will be implemented, continues with the integration of a set of data acquisition and wireless communication devices, and ends with a logistics information system able to provide final user services. The combination of physical layer analysis with a top layer system view can aid the planning as well as operational phase of this type of RFID system within a logistic chain.

WiMAX antennas for Intelligent Transport System communications

Antennas suitable for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are overseen. The antennas serve a narrow-band high performance unlicensed 5.470-5.725 GHz Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) deployed over a full-duplex bi-directional optical link. The system is composed of 3-RFports aimed to support Adaptive Antenna System (AAS), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and Sectorization, for communications of about 70 ~ 100 Mbps over micro-cells along highways to moving vehicles incorporating a Ultra Wide Band (UWB) network of 480 Mbps. A design study has been carried out to assess the most cost-effective while efficient antenna units. The effects among antennas seen as interferers are also considered.

Miniaturised Multiband PIFA Antenna using a Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) Ground Plane

Given the constrained geometry of modern mobile equipment, the design of small volume antennas such as planar inverted-F Antennas (PIFAs) is of great interest. In devices such as laptops, PDAs, and phones, antennas must be low profile and compact by Huynh, M.-C and Stutzman (2004). Here a novel low cost, easily fabricated, miniaturized multiband PIFA antenna with a frequency selective surface (FSS) as a bottom layer is presented. The miniature PIFA is designed for GSM 900, GSM1800, DECT, DCS, UMTS, Bluetooth (WLAN) and HiperLAN 1&2.

Magnetic field forming Using Planar Multicoil Antenna to Generate Orthogonal H-Field Components

Magnetic-field (H-Field) forming using planar multicoil transmitter antenna is presented. To address angular misalignment in inductive coupling systems, three orthogonal H-field components are formed in near-field zone of the transmitter antenna. This proposed magnetic field forming is performed by analyzing near-field distributions of various combinations of spatially distributed coils. The analytical study evolves into the planar multicoil design achieving three orthogonal components of H-field formed in target receiver area. The proposed antenna is realized in printed circuit board technology, simulated, and measured to validate the claim. The results corroborated with the analytical results and proved potential of the proposed design suitable for inductive coupling based applications like radio frequency identification, wireless charging, near-field communication, and medical implantation.

Optimal E-Field Vector Combination for a Highly Focused Antenna-Array

A near-field highly focused circular phased-array antenna for 5.8-GHz radio frequency identification (RFID) applications is presented. The electric field (E-field) at the focus is enhanced by a constructive vector combination in a three-dimensional (3-D) coordinate system. The array dipoles of the antenna are oriented to enhance the energy confinement at the focus, and the radii of the circular array is optimized for lower sidelobe levels. As a result, the proposed design achieves an enhanced focalization of ≈ 4 dB with reduced sidelobe levels of ≈ 12 dB compared to earlier designs.

Multipurpose Near- and Far-Field Switched Multiband Coil Antenna for 915-MHz/2.45/5.8-GHz RFIDs

A multipurpose near- and far-field switched multiband reader antenna for radio frequency identification (RFID) applications is presented. The proposed antenna is simple, planar, and has three modes of operating frequencies: 915 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. The prototype is realized using nonuniformly distributed turns coil for robust reactive and radiated field performance, leading to a multipurpose near- and far-field antenna in a single unit. Results show performance of the proposed multipurpose antenna in both near-field and far-field region and demonstrate its suitability for various RFID applications.