Final report of the project KOMET

The radio channel sets limits for wireless communication systems. There is a substantial demand for systems with stealth capability and robustness to jamming as well as to difficult wave propagation conditions. Military operations in urban environment are in general conducted with dismounted soldiers, both outside and inside buildings, including below ground in basements and culverts. The situation puts new demands on our understanding of the communication links and their limitations. For some situations, free space optics may be a better choice than radio communication. During 2003 - 2005, the project KOMET, "The properties of the communication channel in urban environment", has studied the radio wave propagation in urban environment. Calculations with a commercial software have been performed as well as channel measurements, some in collaboration with Lund University. Two different techniques of free space optics were studied, non-line-of-sight and retro communication. Urban warfare has also been studied. This report summarizes the work and proposes areas of further work.