Using Multi-Source Real Landform Data to Predict and Analyze Intercity Remote Interference of 5G Communication with Ducting and Troposcatter Effects

Abstract

At present, 5G base stations are densely distributed in major cities based on improving user concentrations and the large demand for services in urban hotspot areas. Moreover, 5G communication requires more accurate communication propagation loss (PL) monitoring. Low-build areas, such as suburbs and rural areas, are prone to forming relatively stable tropospheric ducts, which can bend the signal to the surface in the duct-trapping layer for multiple reflections. Due to the random flow of the atmospheric air mass, each reflection of the communication signal is re-scattered in the troposphere through the top of the duct layer, thereby expanding the propagation range of the signal and changing the expected effect of radio wave propagation. If ducting and troposcatter effects happen in the 5G base station antenna layer, co-channel interference (CCI) could occur, affecting the quality of electromagnetic propagation. Urban links in the plain area have no major terrain obstacles, but ground fluctuations and land cover scattering have a greater impact on the signal scattering at the bottom of the duct. On the basis of the forward-propagation theory, this paper adds factors, such as ducting the forecast value using real weather parameters, terrain, and land cover-type distributions to evaluate the CCIs of over-the-horizon communications on the intercity link. Based on 1300 sets of randomly generated terrains and landforms, two deep learning (DL) models were used to predict the PL of over-the-horizon communications between cities in a land-based ducting environment. The accuracy of LSTM prediction could reach 98.4%. The verification of PL prediction using DL in this paper allows for quick and efficient prediction of PL in the land-based ducting of intercity links using land cover characteristics.