RELIABLE WIRELESS SENSOR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS USING ULTRA-WIDEBAND SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO

摘要

Recent developments in ultra-wideband (UWB) technology have shown great promise in wirelesstransmission of sensor data in complex environments that are hostile to RF propagation, such asnuclear facilities. UWB RF communications is particularly important for reliable communicationsfor its robust link despite the multipath phenomenon in heavy metallic environment of nuclearreactors, as well as in addressing penetration challenges through thick nuclear concrete walls.Although UWB signaling and unique data modulations are critical for successful communicationsin such harsh propagation environments, a fixed UWB radio hardware architecture, with fixedfrequency and transmit power level, could still be expected to face difficulties in various nuclearfacilities as their RF propagation environment might be different with unique and dynamiccharacteristics. In this paper we report on a newly developed UWB system based on softwaredefined-radio (SDR) that is capable of adapting its communications parameters to its propagationenvironment for optimized transmission/reception results in various nuclear facilities. This newUWB-SDR system has been successfully laboratory and field tested and is ready for testing andevaluation in commercial reactors. In this paper we briefly review the advantages of UWBcommunications for nuclear facilities and focus on details of the unique UWB-SDR architecture ofthe newly developed sensor communications system. Then we present experimental resultsconducted at the UC Davis McClellan Nuclear Center, and conclude the paper with a summary ofthe main observations and path for future research.