Site-specific Radio Propagation Model for Macrocell Coverage at Sub-6 GHz Frequencies

This article presents a radio propagation model for macrocell coverage predictions in built-up areas for sub-6-GHz frequency band. The proposed two-ray model is a combination of various individual propagation models available in the literature, namely the discrete mixed Fourier transform split-step parabolic-equation (DMFT-SSPE) to characterize reflection and diffraction phenomena due to the presence of buildings and terrain irregularities, the building-transmission model (BTM) to account for the signal attenuation through the nearby buildings and the International Telecommunication Union of Radio-communications (ITU-R) model for attenuation in vegetation to weight the excess attenuation caused by the surrounding vegetation. The performance of the proposed modeling approach was assessed against measurement results obtained from an extensive measurement campaign conducted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The receiver (RX) antenna was assembled on an automotive van, and it was made to travel around the city recording the received signal level. Several drive tests were conducted, including different transmitter (TX) locations and scenarios, and at various frequencies foreseen for 5G systems, namely 750 MHz, 2.5 GHz, and 3.5 GHz.