Impact of Modern Construction Materials on Radio Signal Propagation: Practical Measurements and Network Planning Aspects

Abstract

Use of energy efficient construction materials is increasing all the time due to more and more tightened building regulations, which aim is to reduce overall energy consumption and thereon e.g. mitigate climate change. Energy efficient building materials and structures improve heat insulation but also change the propagation characteristics of radio signals between outdoor and indoors. This paper examines in details such propagation effects and increased levels of outdoor-indoor attenuation in modern apartment buildings, and their impact on mobile cellular networks. In particular, the aim is to compare external wall attenuations for the modern and older apartment buildings and to assess the impact of increased attenuations for the density and planning of cell sites of mobile cellular macro networks. We also demonstrate and evaluate the opportunities for increased indoor signal coverage by using a dedicated aperture installed in building materials.

Techno-economical analysis and comparison of legacy and ultra-dense small cell networks

“…Similar penetration loss values for modern buildings have been reported in [7], for the 2100 MHz band.…”

“…Outdoor signals incur high losses when penetrating into the indoor environment via external walls. Traditionally, the values have been in the range of 5 dB -15 dB, however a more recent study has reported building penetration losses up to 35 dB in modern constructions [6], [7]. As the network capacity and data throughput directly depend on the signal quality, it is imperative for mobile network operators to dimension their networks from indoor service provisioning perspective.…”

Deployment strategies and performance analysis of Macrocell and Femtocell networks in suburban environment with modern buildings

“…These values have been selected to model the building penetration losses for both older and modem constructions, for instance, a loss of approximately S IS dB has been observed for older buildings, while for modem constructions the measured WPL range lies between 25-35 dB, in the 2100 MHz band [5].…”

“…This is pushing the construction industries to develop, manufacture and utilize modem construction materials, that provide greater degree of thermal insulation, thereby reducing the load on heating and cooling systems and hence the carbon emissions 978-1-4799-3784-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 643 and energy consumption. Although at first sight this has seem ingly nothing to do with radio communications and mobile networks, it has, however, recently been reported that such new construction materials have also significant impact on the radio signal propagation, most notably in the form of highly increased building penetration losses (BPL) [4], [5]. Due to the lack of coordination and communication between mobile network and construction industries, this has started to pose serious concerns for mobile operators that are still heavily relying on traditional macro layer to provide indoor coverage and capacity.…”

“…A concrete example is that the typical building penetration loss values used still today by mobile network operators and radio network planners, in dimensioning their networks, are in the range of 5-15 dB [6], [7]. However, very recent works based on actual RF measurements in modem residential buildings have reported a drastic increase in these values, with peak BPL values reaching 35 dB [4], [5]. This challenging combination of energy efficient building materials and energy-and spectrally efficient indoor mobile network connectivity is the leading theme of this article.…”