Empirical Investigation of Field Strngth Spatial Coverage Variability in Mobile Radio Communication Networks
Anthony. Igbinovia1, Joseph Isabona2*
Citation : Anthony. Igbinovia, Joseph Isabona, Empirical Investigation of Field Strngth Spatial Coverage Variability in Mobile Radio Communication Networks International Journal of Research Studies in Electrical and Electronics Engineering 2018, 4(4) : 33-41.
There is the need to continuously assess the coverage area of existing cellular networks� base station (BS) transmitters in a multipath propagation environment. This arises as a result of continuous changes in the radio communication paths due to different propagation mechanisms, changing foliage conditions, equipment deterioration as well traffic growth, all of which impact the radio frequency (RF) performance properties of the operational wireless radio networks. This is also particularly important in this transition shifting phase era in the telecommunication industry where network service operators has been rolling out different multimedia services to meet the subscribers demand. The shift has been fuelled by the technological advancement in the sector, starting from narrowband second generation system networks such as GSM in the early 90�s to contemporary mobile broadband UMTS/HSPA/LTE networks. This work aim to practically investigate the spatial variations of electric field strength coverage over some randomly selected UMTS/HSPA BS transmitters operational in a typical Nigerian urban environment. Signal levels were measured with the drive test tools and then adapted to field strength in dB�V/m for coverage evaluation. From the results, the network delivered 70%, 6.7% 5.6%, and 6.7% on primary signal coverage, respectively in BS locations. The results has also pointed out the area around the BS transmitters where the signal coverage might not be strong enough to compensate for multipath fading and interference. The results can be used to exploit the best possible configurations for antenna heights, tilts and engineering parameters setting for all present cells/sectors in the networks.