Path loss measurements for low-antenna links in urban street environments

Abstract

This paper presents line-of-sight (LoS) path loss characteristics for low-antenna links in urban street environments to account for propagation channels in mobile-to-mobile direct communications. The key variables, from the perspective of horizontal and vertical planes of such environments, are street width and surrounding building height. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the environmental variables on path loss, based on measurement campaigns. To emulate a mobile-to-mobile direct communication link, both a transmitter and a receiver are installed in vehicles so that the antennas are held to near-street levels. Path loss measurements are collected at a carrier frequency of 3.7 GHz with an omni 1×4-antenna configuration. The measured results show that the building height does affect the path loss behavior, but that the street width does not. In particular, the path loss exponent after the break point decreases as the building height increases.