New Report on NIST Tests of Wireless Environment in Auto Factories

A new report describes tests carried out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the wireless environment in automotive manufacturing facilities. The measurements, carried out through a joint collaboration between NIST and USCAR, indicate that these facilities are highly reflective, reverberant environments that can complicate reliable performance of wireless technology. The measured results provide key parameters that describe the wireless propagation environment, which will be useful for assessing current and future deployment of wireless technology in industrial manufacturing, for standards development and for qualifying the performance of wireless equipment used in highly reflective environments. Using the measured data, NIST is currently developing laboratory-based methods for qualifying wireless equipment for use in highly reflective environments.

NIST Tests of the Wireless Environment in Automobile Manufacturing Facilities (NIST Technical Note 1550) by Kate A. Remley, Galen Koepke, Chriss Grosvenor, Robert T. Johnk, John Ladbury, Dennis Camell and Jason Coder is available online.