28 GHz Indoor and Outdoor Propagation Analysis at a Regional Airport

Abstract

In the upcoming 5G communication, the millimeter wave (mmWave) technology will play an important role due to its large bandwidth and high data rate. However, mmWave frequencies have higher free-space path loss (FSPL) in line-ofsight (LOS) propagation compared to the currently used sub-6 GHz frequencies. What is more, in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation, the attenuation of mmWave is larger compared to the lower frequencies, which can seriously degrade the performance. It is therefore necessary to investigate mmWave propagation characteristics for a given deployment scenario to understand coverage and rate performance for that environment. In this paper, we focus on 28 GHz wideband mmWave signal propagation characteristics at Johnston Regional Airport (JNX), a local airport near Raleigh, NC. To collect data, we use an NI PXI based channel sounder at 28 GHz for indoor, outdoor, and indoor-to-outdoor scenarios. Results on LOS propagation, reflection, penetration, signal coverage, and multi-path components (MPCs) show a lower indoor FSPL, a richer scattering, and a better coverage compared to outdoor. We also observe high indoor-to-outdoor propagation losses.

Real-time Wi-Fi network performance evaluation

“…The distance starts at 10 meters and up to 30 meters. The surroundings for each measurement are different in terms of (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) conditions [17].…”