Chapter 2: Mobile Radio Propagation

Large-Scale Path Loss

Wireless channel?

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I. Problems Unique to Wireless (not wired) systems

• Paths can vary from simple line-of-sight to ones that are

severely obstructed by buildings, mountains, and foliage
• Radio channels are extremely random and difficult to
analyze
• Interference from other service providers
• Out-of-band non-linear Tx emissions
• Interference from other users (same network)
• CCI due to frequency reuse
• ACI due to Tx/Rx design limitations & large # users sharing
finite BW
• Shadowing
• Obstructions to line-of-sight paths cause areas of weak
received signal strength

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I. Problems Unique to Wireless systems
• Fading
• When no clear line-of-sight path exists, signals are received that
are reflections off obstructions and diffractions around obstructions
• Multipath signals can be received that interfere with each other
• Fixed Wireless Channel → random & unpredictable
• Must be characterized in a statistical fashion
• Field measurements often needed to characterize radio channel
performance
• The mobile radio channel (MRC) has unique problems that limit
performance
• A mobile Rx in motion influences rates of fading
• The faster a mobile moves, the more quickly characteristics change

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II. Radio Signal Propagation

• The smoothed line is the average signal strength

• Actual received signal strength can vary by more than 20 dB
over a few centimeters.
• The average signal strength decays with distance from the
transmitter, and depends on terrain and obstructions
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Two basic goals of propagation modeling
1. Predict average received signal strength for given Tx/Rx
separation

• Characterize received signal strength over distances from 20 m

to 20 km
• Large-scale radio wave propagation model models
• Needed to estimate coverage area of base station
• In general, large scale path loss decays gradually with distance
from the transmitter
• Will also be affected by geographical features like hills and
buildings

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2. Predict magnitude and rate (speed) of received signal
strength fluctuations over short distances/time durations

• “Short” → typically a few wavelengths (λ) or seconds

• At 1 Ghz, λ = c/f = 3x108 / 1x109 = 0.3 meters
• Received signal strength can vary drastically by 30 to 40 dB
• Small-scale fluctuations → called fading
• Caused by received signal coming from a sum of many signals
coming together at a receiver
• Multiple signals come from reflections and scattering
• These signals can destructively add together by being out-of-
phase

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Free-Space Path Loss Model
• Is a large-scale path loss model used to predict received
signal strength
• When the transmitter and receiver have a clear, unobstructed
line-of-sight (LOS) path between them
• Example: Satellite and fixed microwave
• Friis transmission formula

• Where
• Pr : is rx power
• Pt : is tx power
• G : Tx or Rx antenna gains (unitless)
• d : T-R separation ()
• L : Loss due to tx. Line attenuation, filter loss, & antenna loss. L =
1 for zero loss and L > 1 in general

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• Relative to isotropic source (ideal antenna which radiates
power uniformly in all directions)
• In the far-field of an antenna (beyond a few meters)
• Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP)
EIRP = PtGt
• Represents the max. radiated power available from a Tx in
the direction of max. antenna gain, as compare to an
isotropic radiator
• λ = wavelength = c / f (m). A term is related to
antenna gain
• So, as frequency increases, what happens to the
propagation characteristics?

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• d = T-R separation distance (m)
• Signal fades in proportion to d2
• We can view signal strength as related to the density of the signal
across a large sphere
• This is the surface area of a sphere with radius d
• So, a term in the denominator is related to distance and density of
surface area across a sphere

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• ⇒ Path Loss (PL) in dB:

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• d2 → power law relationship
• Pr decreases at rate of proportional to d2
• Pr decreases at rate of 20 dB/decade (for line-of-sight, even
worse for other cases)
• For example, path loses 20 dB from 100 m to 1 km
• Comes from the d2 relationship for surface area.

• Note: Negative “loss” = “gain”

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• Example:
• Path loss can be computed in terms of a link budget calculation.
• Compute path loss as a sum of dB terms for the following:
• Unity gain transmission antenna.
• Unity gain receiving antenna.
• No system losses
• Carrier frequency of 3 GHz
• Distance = 2000 meters
•

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• Close in reference point (do) is used in large-scale models

• do : known received power reference point - typically 100

m or 1 km for outdoor systems and 1 m for indoor
systems
• df : far-field distance of antenna, we will always work
problems in the far-field
2D2
df = df D df 


• D: the largest physical linear dimension of antenna

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• Reference Point Example:
• Given the following system characteristics for large-scale
propagation, find the reference distance do.
• Received power at do = 20 W
• Received power at 5 km = 13 dBm

• Using Watts:

• Using dBm:

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III. Reflections
• There are three basic propagation mechanisms in addition
to line-of-sight paths
• Reflection - Waves bouncing off of objects of large dimensions
• Diffraction - Waves bending around sharp edges of objects
• Scattering - Waves traveling through a medium with small objects
in it (foliage, street signs, lamp posts, etc.) or reflecting off rough
surfaces

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• Reflection occurs when RF energy is incident upon a boundary
between two materials (e.g air/ground) with different electrical
characteristics
• Permittivity µ
• Permeability ε
• Conductance σ
• Reflecting surface must be large relative to λ of RF energy
• Reflecting surface must be smooth relative to λ of RF energy
• “specular” reflection

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• What are important reflecting surfaces for mobile radio?

• Fresnel reflection coefficient → Γ

• describes the magnitude of reflected RF energy
• depends upon material properties, polarization, & angle of
incidence

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IV. Ground Reflection (2-Ray) Model
• Good for systems that use tall towers (over 50 m tall)
• Good for line-of-sight microcell systems in urban environments

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• ETOT is the electric field that results from a combination of a direct
line-of-sight path and a ground reflected path

• is the amplitude of the electric field at distance d

• ωc = 2πfc where fc is the carrier frequency of the signal
• Notice at different distances d the wave is at a different phase
because of the form similar to

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• For the direct path let d = d’ ; for the reflected path
d = d” then

• for large T−R separation : θi goes to 0 (angle of

incidence to the ground of the reflected wave) and
Γ = −1
• Phase difference can occur depending on the
phase difference between direct and reflected E
fields
• The phase difference is θ∆ due to Path difference ,
∆ = d”− d’, between
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From two triangles with sides d and (ht + hr) or (ht – hr)

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• ∆ can be expanded using a Taylor series expansion

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• which works well for d >> (ht + hr), which means
and are small

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• the phase difference between the two arriving
signals is

E0 d 0   
ETOT (t ) = 2 sin  
d  2
  2 hr ht
  0.3 rad
2 d
E0 d 0 2 hr ht k
ETOT (t )  2  2 V/m
d d d

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• For d0=100meter, E0=1, fc=1 GHz, ht=50 meters, hr=1.5 meters, at t=0

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• note that the magnitude is with respect to a reference of
E0=1 at d0=100 meters, so near 100 meters the signal can
be stronger than E0=1
• the second ray adds in energy that would have been lost otherwise
• for large distances it can be shown that

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V. Diffraction
• RF energy can propagate:
• around the curved surface of the Earth
• beyond the line-of-sight horizon
• Behind obstructions
• Although EM field strength decays rapidly as Rx moves
deeper into “shadowed” or obstructed (OBS) region
• The diffraction field often has sufficient strength to produce
a useful signal

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• Huygen’s principle says points on a wavefront can be
considered sources for additional wavelets.

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• The wavefront on top of an obstruction generates secondary
(weaker) waves.

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• The difference between the direct path and diffracted path,
call excess path length

• Fresnel-Kirchoff diffraction parameter

• The corresponding phase difference

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• The excess total path length traversed by a ray passing
through each circle is nλ/2

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• The diffraction gain due to the presence of a knife
edge, as compared the the free space E-field

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VI. Scattering
• Received signal strength is often stronger than that
predicted by reflection/diffraction models alone
• The EM wave incident upon a rough or complex
surface is scattered in many directions and provides
more energy at a receiver
• energy that would have been absorbed is instead reflected
to the Rx.
• Scattering is caused by trees, lamp posts, towers, etc.
• flat surface → EM reflection (one direction)
• rough surface → EM scattering (many directions)

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VII. Path Loss Models
• We wish to predict large scale coverage using analytical
and empirical (field data) methods
• It has been repeatedly measured and found that Pr @ Rx
decreases logarithmically with distance

∴ PL (d) = (d / do )n where n : path loss exponent or

PL (dB) = PL (do ) + 10 n log (d / do )

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• “bar” means the average of many PL values at a
given value of d (T-R sep.)
• n depends on the propagation environment
• “typical” values based on measured data

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Pathloss models
1. Empirical models
➢ Okumura-Hata Model
➢ Walfish–Ikegami
➢ COST 231
➢ ITU P.1546
2. Deterministic models
➢ Ray Tracing Models
➢ Dominant path model
❖ Each model has its own pros and cons
➢ Need to understand where we suitably apply each one of them
❖ Accuracy of models depends on input level regarding the propagation
environment
❖ Empirical models are simple to use but less accurate than deterministic
models that apply accurate terrain and building databases
Okumura-Hata Model
❖ The original Hata model is given by

where the parameters (and their corresponding units) are

150 and 1500 MHz

Okumura-Hata Model
❖ The correction factor for the mobile antenna height “ai(hMS)”
depends on the size of the coverage area:
– Large/dense city (i.e., “i = 1”),
– Medium/small size city (i.e., “i = 2”),
– Suburban area (i.e., “i = 3) and
– Rural/open area (i.e., “i = 4”)
Okumura-Hata Model
Okumura-Hata Model
❖ Later on, Okumura-Hata model was extended to the 1500-2000
MHz frequencies, in the COST 231 research program
– The distance interval was also extended
❖ ITU-R sector adopted this model in Recommendation P.529

where MS antenna height correction factor is the same as in the

previous model, and the additional term is given by
Okumura-Hata Model: PL vs. Range (1)

Carrier frequency
Okumura-Hata Model: PL vs. Range

Carrier frequency
Okumura-Hata Model: PL vs. BS Antenna Height

Carrier
frequency

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Okumura-Hata Model: PL vs. Range

Environment Type
Model tuning Example correction
factor for Okumura-Hata
❖ To customize the used empirical
propagation model for the area
❖ Tune the model based on measurement
data
➢ Formulate correction factors
❖ A carefully tuned model is the key for
efficient coverage planning