Large-scale radio propagation path loss measurements and predictions in the VHF and UHF bands

Nasir Faruk,I.Y Abdulrasheed,N.T Surajudeen-Bakinde,Emmanuel Adetiba,A.A Oloyede,Abubakar Abdulkarim,Olugbenga Sowande,Ayodele H Ifijeh,Aderemi A Atayero

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07298

Nasir Faruk, I.Y Abdulrasheed + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07298

Copy DOI

Abstract

For decades now, a lot of radio wave path loss propagation models have been developed for predictions across different environmental terrains. Amongst these models, empirical models are practically the most popular due to their ease of application. However, their prediction accuracies are not as high as required. Therefore, extensive path loss measurement data are needed to develop novel measurement-oriented path loss models with suitable correction factors for varied frequency, capturing both local terrain and clutter information, this have been found to be relatively expensive. In this paper, a large-scale radio propagation path loss measurement campaign was conducted across the VHF and UHF frequencies. A multi-transmitter propagation set-up was employed to measure the strengths of radio signals from seven broadcasting transmitters (operating at 89.30, 103.5, 203.25, 479.25, 615.25, 559.25 and 695.25 MHz respectively) at various locations covering a distance of 145.5 km within Nigerian urban environments. The measurement procedure deployed ensured that the data obtained strictly reflect the shadowing effects on radio signal propagation by filtering out the small-scale fading components. The paper also, examines the feasibilities of applying Kriging method to predict distanced-based path losses in the VHF and UHF bands. This method was introduced to minimize the cost of measurements, analysis and predictions of path losses in built-up propagation environments.

Highlights

Wireless systems and services have recently become highly indispensable in everyday activities of the human populace
They are crucial in our day-to-day activities as they are deployed at homes, business places, and places of worships, schools, hospitals, markets and many other places
Other effects are signal absorption, interference and refraction. All these are varied phenomenon that often resulted in signal fading. This may be a small-scale fading when the signal is propagated within a short duration and distance, resulting to rapid fluctuations of signal strength or a large-scale fading when it happens over a large distance, resulting to propagation losses

Summary

Introduction

Wireless systems and services have recently become highly indispensable in everyday activities of the human populace They are crucial in our day-to-day activities as they are deployed at homes, business places, and places of worships, schools, hospitals, markets and many other places. All these are varied phenomenon that often resulted in signal fading This may be a small-scale fading when the signal is propagated within a short duration and distance, resulting to rapid fluctuations of signal strength or a large-scale fading when it happens over a large distance, resulting to propagation losses. This large-scale fading is commonly refers to as path loss (Faruk et al, 2013b). Similar work was conducted in cruise ship in (Mariscotti, 2011) to determine the signal attenuation and propagation loss parameters. (Gonzalez-Palacio et al, 2021) shows how Support Vector Machine (SVM) is more accurate in predicting signal of WLAN network than simplified path loss lognormal shadow fading model

Methods

Results

Conclusion