Path loss validation for urban micro cell scenarios at 3.5 GHz compared to 1.9 GHz

Abstract

The 3.5 GHz band is a strong candidate for future urban micro cell deployment with base station antennas located below rooftop. Compared to other frequency bands, propagation in the 3.5 GHz band is relatively unexplored for the micro cell deployment. This paper presents a measurement-based analysis of outdoor and outdoor-to-indoor propagation at 3.5 GHz in comparison to the more well-known frequency of 1.9 GHz. A simple two-slope line-of-sight/non-line-of-sight outdoor path loss model is proposed and compared to different existing path loss models. The outdoor path loss is found to be approximately 5 dB higher for 3.5 GHz compared to 1.9 GHz. The outdoor-to-indoor propagation is investigated for two office buildings and different street shops. For the different presented scenarios, penetration loss increases with frequency and is found to be up to 5 dB higher for 3.5 GHz compared with 1.9 GHz. Although some existing models predict the observations with good accuracy, we propose a model based on line-of-sight probability that is simpler and easier to apply.

An Empirical Outdoor-to-Indoor Path Loss Model From Below 6 GHz to cm-Wave Frequency Bands

“…A simplified micro cell base station (BS) was emulated by using a lamppost setup with omnidirectional antennas at 7 m height (see [10] for a visual reference). Continuous wave (CW) signals at the selected carrier frequencies were simultaneously transmitted.…”

“…The model is based on measurements performed on the exact same set of scenarios for different frequency bands ranging from traditional cellular allocations below 6 GHz (0.8, 2, 3.5 and 5.2 GHz), up to cm-wave frequencies (10,18 and 28 GHz). The model has applicability similar to the typical 3GPP and ITU-R outdoorto-indoor simplified models, including the multi-frequency formulation recently included in the 3GPP TR 38.900.…”

5G – Wireless Communications for 2020

“…In macro cells, the radio signal propagates above rooftops and gets diffracted from rooftop to street level [83,84]. Differently, in outdoor small cells, the radio signal is guided along street canyons, due to reflection and scattering on the buildings, and diffraction on the corners [85]. For indoor small cells, propagation is more complicated due to the multiple reflections on the walls, propagation through floors and walls and corridor guiding effects [86].…”

On the Traffic Offloading in Wi-Fi Supported Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

“…However, the measurements indicate that a simple power law PL model cannot be used to fit the measurements with good accuracy especially when the distance between the transmitter and receiver is short [4,14,15]. Therefore, this paper considers a two slope (commonly known as dual slope) PL model for HetSNets [4,14,15]…”

“…To avoid the sharp transition between the two regions of a two slope PL model, a generalized propagation model for both macrocell and smallcell networks is considered in [16,15]:…”