Communication systems are a key element for the industry 4.0 revolution, where the remote access to the machinery is a fundamental part for the automation of tasks related to monitoring and control of the different industrial processes. There is an increasing interest in performing such communications using a wireless medium, as they offer several advantages as a lower cost, greater flexibility or the ability to operate in moving elements. However, existing works have showed that the achievable performance in the sub-6 GHz frequency bands is insufficient to cope with all the requirements, which motivated the analysis of the millimeter wave spectrum for these use cases. Industrial environments present a harsh condition for electromagnetic wave propagation, where the abundance of reflective surfaces can present difficulties to properly exchange information. Thus, a thorough analysis and characterization of the propagation through this kind of environment is necessary to develop protocols and standards accordingly. This work provides the results of measurements carried out in two industrial facilities, which are a university workshop and a pit oven building from a steel company. Metrics of the results are computed and discussed as well, where a significantly larger losses can be seen for the pit oven measurements compared to other industrial scenarios. 

There are nine study programmes awarding the degree bachelor in engineering (högskoleingenjör) at the University of Gävle. Some of these have only a few applicants, even though the graduates are appreciated by a relatively large regional primary and secondary sector industry. A major revision of the programmes is planned. One objective is to increase the attractiveness of the programmes. In the revised programmes, students are proposed to study most courses together during the first year of study, even if they belong to different engineering specializations. This is intended to improve the study environment. Students in programmes with low numbers of applicants will become part of a richer and livelier student collective. However, the attractiveness could further be problematized by asking to whom higher education is attractive. A special focus will be on increasing the admission of students from groups in society that have been underrepresented in higher education. More specifically this may be linked to individual factors such as the educational level of parents, family income, immigrational background and geography. There may also be societal explanations in traditions of gendered professions. Engineering programmes, and especially some of the specializations at the university, are dominated by male students. This study focuses on how universities can take action to further increase the attractiveness of the engineering programmes, with a special regard to groups that are known to be underrepresented among the students.

The fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system will change the world through intelligent mobile devices and flexible networks to offer a new wide range of applications. mmWave radio propagation combined with a variety of new frequencies and bandwidth creates new radio measurement challenges. There are major limitations when it comes to mmWave components and measuring instruments. In this work we have designed and built a 7-GHz measuring system intended for in-situ channel characterization in environments where transmitters and receivers are located at different heights, like e.g. wireless sensor network installations. Such configurations are likely to be commonplace with the advent of e.g. Industry 4.0. The system has been tested in space experiments, where the distance and height between transmitter and receiver were changed. In addition, wave propagation behavior was studied through different materials placed between transmitter and receiver. The measurement system presented in this paper will provide an insight into the design of similar 5G test systems.

Bending, twisting or vibrations in coaxial and multi-wire cables can generate signal noise, often dominated by triboelectric charging effects. Cables that ensure low triboelectric noise are called low noise cables. These cables are used in many low-level measurement applications such as medical instruments and sensors in nuclear plant. In this work, we have designed a triboelectric charge meter that can detect and amplify charges at sub-femtocoulomb levels, sufficient to characterize the triboelectric noise in a wide range of high performance coaxial cables. During loop bending tests of, standard-, low noise-, and super-low noise coaxial cables, average microphonic noise levels of 2600 fC, 142 fC, and 2.9 fC respectively, were measured, i.e. super-low noise coaxial cables exhibits an almost 60 dB reduction of the triboelectric noise compared to standard coaxial cables and 35 dB compared to low noise cables.

The connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) will never be completely autonomous; on the contrary, it will be heavily dependent on so-called vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) for its function. To deserve the trust of the general public, the vehicles as well as the intelligent transport system (ITS) infrastructure must be able to handle not only natural disturbances but also attacks of malicious nature. In this paper, we discuss the effects of antagonistic attacks using intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) and how the antagonistic nature of the threat renders probabilistic risk analysis inadequate for the defense of the vehicles and the infrastructure. Instead, we propose a shift toward resilience engineering and vulnerability analysis to manage antagonistic threats. Finally, we also give two examples of possible scenarios to illustrate the type of situations a CAV must be able to handle.

In this paper, we report results from shielding effectiveness measurements on energy-saving windows and individual, coated window panes of different generations, as well as results from high-power microwave irradiation on single panes. Shielding effectiveness was measured with two complementary methods: first, with near isotropic irradiation in nested reverberation chambers, and the other with irradiation at normal incidence in a semianechoic chamber. The measurements show that the construction of the energy conserving windows has a clear impact on how well they attenuate radio frequency signals. The more modern the window or pane, the higher is the shielding effectiveness. The high-power irradiation on coated panes showed that depending on the type of coating, hotspots can build up causing the coating to crack and, hence, deteriorate the shielding effectiveness. These results may serve as guidance when reviewing high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP), high-power microwave, or intentional electromagnetic interference protection of critical infrastructures, and provide assistance in the work with reduction of compromising emanations.

Thin metal coatings on glass are widely used in modern windows to improve their thermal properties. However, while there are some available papers on the properties of microwave propagation through commercial metallized windows glass below 6 GHz there seems to be a lack of papers regarding metallized multi-glazed windows at higher frequencies. Such data are of the great importance when designing modern microwave communication systems working in urban environments. In this paper, the shielding effectiveness of modern energy-saving glasses and windows were investigated at microwave frequencies from 1 GHz to 20 GHz. Wide measurement range together with proposed fast calculation procedure based on the matrix multiplication method, allowed us to elucidate the reasons responsible for the extremes in dependencies of shielding effectiveness on frequency. It was also shown that by comparing measured and calculated results, the conductivity of the thin metallic layer used in modern energy-saving windows can be determined. During the study, we found that attenuation of microwave radiation passing through modern windows can be as high as 60 dB.

The past few decades have shown a veritable explosion of new versions of energy-saving windows and coated window panes. In the wake of this, problems with radio communications into and from within buildings has arisen. However, this unexpected attenuation of radio signals may also be used to shield a facility from incoming intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI). With the intention to investigate the shielding effectiveness (SE) of modern windows and window panes a two-year measurement campaign was launched mid-2014. Another, little investigated area is what happens to coated glass when irradiated by a high-power microwave (HPM) source. Shielding effectiveness has been measured for different types of energy saving windows and coated window panes both in a semi-anechoic chamber and in a reverberation chamber over the frequency range 1-18 GHz. The effects of HPM irradiation were studied by comparing SE measured before and after the pulsed 28 kV/m L-band irradiation. The main conclusion is that with the right choice of window the shielding effectiveness of a building can reach up 40-50 dB. In this paper we summarize these measurements and lessons learned from the measurement campaign.

In recent decades, window panes and windows have undergone a virtual revolution with respect to energy saving. Along with this revolution a strong reduction of radio transmission capability through windows has followed. It has been observed that radio communication (e.g. mobile telephony) in newly built or renovated buildings has become increasingly difficult to accomplish due to the higher attenuation in these energy-saving windows. On the upside though, the increased attenuation can help in the protection against intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) and compromising emanations from activities inside the building.

In this paper we summarize shielding effectiveness (SE) measurements conducted on window panes and window modules during 2014 and 2015 and give some conclusions drawn regarding do’s and don’ts when installing windows.

Ett allt vanligare fenomen är att mobil telekommunikation inte fungerar i moderna/nybyggda hus. Detta kan härledas till de moderna energisparfönster som monteras in. Denna skärmverkan är inte bara ett problem utan kan också vändas till en fördel i de fall man vill skydda verksamhet från yttre elektromagnetiska störningar, till exempel avsiktlig elektromagnetisk störning (IEMI), samt i de fall då man vill undvika att röjande strålning (RÖS) från elektronisk utrustning läcker ut och kan avlyssnas.

Här kommer vi presentera resultaten från mätningar av skärmverkan hos dels fönster av olika generation och dels enskilda fönsterglas med olika funktion som används för att bygga upp dessa fönster. Dessutom presenteras resultat från mätningar av hur skärmverkan påverkas vid bestrålning med högeffekts mikrovågsstrålning (HPM).