Deep Learning Based Channel Prediction at 2–26

GHz Band using Long Short-Term Memory Network

Motoharu Sasaki1*, Nobuaki Kuno1, Toshiro Nakahira1, Minoru Inomata1, Wataru Yamada1, Takatsune Moriyama1
1
Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, NTT Corp., Kanagawa, Japan, motoharu.sasaki.cn@hco.ntt.co.jp*

Abstract—We report a method of predicting variations in
path loss using long short-term memory (LSTM) as deep
learning. The training data and validation data are path loss
data measured in Kanagawa, Japan, and the measurement
frequencies are in the 2.2 GHz, 4.7 GHz, and 26.4 GHz
frequency bands. The median data of the path loss after 1
second was predicted using 100 points of fast fading data
obtained about every 0.1 seconds. The median data was
derived using fast fading data of 100 points (about 10 seconds).
Utilizing the prediction method using LSTM, the root-mean-
square error (RMSE) for the validation data was about 2.2 dB
at 2.2 GHz, about 2.1 dB at 4.7 GHz, and about 2.4 dB at 26.4
GHz. The prediction errors were improved by 1 dB or more
than predictions using the latest observed values.
Index Terms—deep learning, LSTM, path loss prediction,
Sub6, millimeter wave, measurements.
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of high frequency bands of 6 GHz and above is
advancing in fifth-generation mobile communication
systems, and the use of higher frequency bands such as the
THz band is expected in sixth-generation mobile
communication systems (6G) [1, 2]. In addition, 6G will
have more diverse system requirements and usage patterns,
including smartphones, tablet PCs, delivery drones, remote
controls, and high-definition telemedicine videos [2].
Therefore, a new network topology cell configuration will
conceivably superimpose various wireless cell services over
each other [2]. Therefore, the connections between base
stations and terminals must be controlled to switch and/or
coordinate a large number of cell base stations to satisfy
various requirements without deteriorating the
communication quality of the terminals in a complicated cell
configuration. For that purpose, technology that predicts the
communication quality of the connected cell in advance is
required for high frequency bands including above 6 GHz,
and the received power must by predicted in the order of
seconds [3].
As for the prediction technology of wireless
communication quality, various methods using deep learning
have been reported. For example, there are methods of
predicting channel state information (CSI) using the
frequency band, time, place, etc. [4], predicting downlink
CSI from uplink CSI using sparse complex-valued neural
networks (SCNet) [5], predicting the multi-antenna coding
using a deep neural network (DNN) [6], and predicting
future CSI from past CSI using long short-term memory
(LSTM) [7]. However, since these prediction methods are
used for signal processing, predictions are made in the order
of microseconds to milliseconds. A method of predicting the
second order based on video information from a camera or
the like has been reported [8–12]. There are studies that
predict the received power of 100 to 500 ms ahead by
combining DNNs based on the video information of the
communication environment [8–10] and studies that predict
the optimum beam direction of multi-antenna systems [11,
12]. Studies of predicting future received power from past
received power without using video information, so methods
of predicting received power after 20 ms using LSTM [13],
predicting up to 2 seconds ahead in the 2.36 GHz band [14],
and predicting received power such as LTE and Wi-Fi using
LSTM and a gated recurrent unit (GRU) [15, 16] have been
reported. However, all the reports are focused on frequency
bands below 6 GHz.
Therefore, in this paper, we predict future received power
from past received power without using video information by
utilizing LSTM for path loss in the 2–26 GHz band including
high frequency bands of 6 GHz and above. In Chapter 2, we
show our deep learning LSTM model. In Chapter 3, we
describe the measurement method and parameters for path
loss data we used for training and validation. In Chapter 4,
we show our model evaluation results. In Chapter 5, we
summarize.
II. PROPOSED MODEL USING LSTM
Fig. 1 shows our model using LSTM, a type of recurrent
neural network (RNN) that is well known for time series
prediction and has been used to predict wireless
communication quality in recent years [7, 13, 15, 16]. RNNs
mainly have a vanishing gradient problem, which LSTM
overcomes to make long-term memory possible. The
structure of the LSTM unit is made by adding the cell state
with a forget gate layer, an input gate layer, and an output
gate layer to a hidden state of the RNN unit. Input gate i
controls the level of cell state updates. Forget gate f controls
the level of cell state resets. Cell candidate g adds
information to a cell state, and output gate o controls the
level of cell states added to the hidden state. Each component
has the input weights W, the recurrent weights R, and the
bias b. They are calculated as follows.

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 it = σ g (Wi xt + Ri ht −1 + bi )
f t = σ g (W f xt + R f ht −1 + b f )
g t = σ c (Wg xt + Rg ht −1 + bg )
ot = σ g (Wo xt + Ro ht −1 + bo )
where σg denotes the state activation function that is the
hyperbolic tangent function, and σc is the gate activation
function that is the sigmoid function. Therefore, the cell state
ct and the hidden state ht at time t are given by
ct = f t  ct −1 + it  g t , (2)
ht = ot  σ c (ct )
where  denotes the Hadamard product that takes two
same-dimensional matrices and generates another matrix in
which each element i, j is the product of elements i, j of the
original two matrices.
Input dimension: [100 timesteps,1]
p t: raw data (fast fading data) of path loss at time t
p t-100 p t-99 … p t-1
…
LST M layer, 50 nodes (tanh)
…
Fully connected layer, 50 nodes (linear)
… Tx1
Fully connected layer, 50 nodes (linear)
…
Fully connected layer, 50 nodes (linear)
…
Fully connected layer, 1 node (linear)
Output: median value of path loss at time t+1 sec
Fig. 1. Proposed model.
The neural network we utilize consists of five types of
layers: an LSTM layer with 50 hidden units, three fully
connected layers with 50 units, and fully connected layers
with one unit. Data are standardized before the input layer.
For the optimization algorithm, Adam is applied with a
maximum epoch of 200.
In this paper, we make predictions using 100 fast fading
data as input data. The output data is the median data of the
path loss after 1 second. The median value is derived from
100 points (about 10 seconds). If the output data are also fast
fading data, it is impossible to predict the future of the
second order because there is no channel correlation between
input and output, so prediction results converges to the
average value. In this method, using the data processed in
advance as the output data facilitates learning so the median
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value can be predicted accurately even in the presence of
, (1) high-speed fading.
In Chapter 4 of this paper, we adopt a method of
prediction that uses the latest observed median values as a
conventional method for comparison.
III. MEASUREMENT METHOD AND PARAMETERS
Fig. 2 shows the measurement environment, and Table 1
shows the measurement parameters. The measurements were
carried out in an urban area in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan.
The average building height in the measurement
environment was about 20 m. The buildings mainly consist
of steel-reinforced concrete, reinforced concrete, or timber.
We used three frequency bands (2.2, 4.7, and 26.4 GHz) and
measured the path loss of all the frequencies at the same
time.
pt
Tx2
(21 m)
100 m
(16 m)
Tx3
(25 m)
Copyright. Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Fig. 2. Measurement environment.
The Tx antennas were installed on building roofs at
heights of about 16, 21, and 25 m (Tx 1, 2, and 3) in the area.
The Rx antennas were set on the roof of the measurement
vehicle at a height of 2.5 m. The red lines in Fig. 2 represent
the routes taken by the measurement vehicle. The path loss
was measured while the vehicle was moving. The Tx
antennas were directional antennas with a half-power
beamwidth (HPBW) of 60°, and the Rx antennas were
omnidirectional. The Rx antenna was positioned to remain
within the Tx antennas’ beamwidth by adjusting the Tx
antennas’ direction. The transmitted signal was a continuous
wave. The received power was acquired at a sampling
frequency of 45 kHz, but we did downsampling to 9.4 Hz
before data processing (data samples were obtained about
every 0.1 sec). The vehicle drove up to about 40 km/h so the
running distance per sample was up to about 1 meter.
The measurement path loss data of Tx1 and Tx2 are used
for training, and the data of Tx3 are used to validate our
LSTM model.
 Fig. 3 shows the distance characteristics of the path loss 115
acquired at Tx1 (used for the training data) as the Meas.
measurement results. Here, the path loss is the median value 120
LSTM
of the 10 m intervals. As Fig. 3 shows, the measurement data Conv.
125

Path loss (dB)

was acquired up to 1000 m or more at any frequency, and the
variation characteristics of path loss when moving in urban 130
areas could be widely acquired.
135
Table 1. Measurement parameters. 140
Frequency (GHz) 2.2, 4.7, 26.4 145
17600 17800 18000 18200 18400
Tx antenna height (m) 16 (Tx1), 21 (Tx2), 25 (Tx3) Sample
Rx antenna height (m) 2.5 (a) 2.2 GHz
Sampling rate (Hz) 9.4 90
95
80 100

Path loss (dB)

2.2 GHz 105
100 4.7 GHz
110
26.4 GHz
Path loss (dB)

120 115
120 Meas.
LSTM
140 125 Conv.
130
160 22200 22400 22600 22800 23000
Sample

180 (b) 4.7 GHz

0 500 1000 1500
Tx-Rx distance (m) 110

Fig. 3. Measurement example (Tx1). Meas.

120 LSTM
Conv.
Path loss (dB)

130
IV. EVALUATION OF PROPOSED MODEL
The prediction accuracy evaluation of our model 140
described in Chapter 2 is shown for the training data (Tx1
and Tx2) and validation data (Tx3) in Chapter 3. Fig. 4 150
shows the prediction results for the training data at each
frequency, and Fig. 5 shows the prediction results for the 160
11400 11500 11600 11700 11800 11900 12000 12100 12200
validation data. We compared our model with a conventional Sample
method (Conv.) that uses the latest observed median path (c) 26.4 GHz
loss value for prediction. As can be seen from the figure, Fig. 4. Example predictions for training data.
both the training data and the validation data can be
predicted to follow the measurement results, and the
prediction is basically performed with higher accuracy than
the conventional method. When an increase or decrease of 10
dB or more occurs, the measurement results are tracked and
predicted faster than the conventional method.

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 80 99.999
99.99
90 99.9
99
100 95
Path loss (dB)

90

CDF (%)
80
70
110 50
30
20 LSTM (train)
120 Meas. 10
5 Conv. (train)
LSTM 1 LSTM (test)
130 Conv. .1 Conv. (test)
.01
140 .001
11600 11800 12000 12200 12400 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
Sample Prediction error (dB)

(a) 2.2 GHz (a) 2.2 GHz

110 99.999
99.99
LSTM (train)
Meas. 99.9
115 Conv. (train)
LSTM 99 LSTM (test)
Conv. 95 Conv. (test)
120 90
Path loss (dB)

CDF (%)
80
70
125 50
30
20
10
130 5
1
135 .1
.01
140 .001
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
8000 8200 8400 8600 8800 9000 Prediction error (dB)
Sample
(b) 4.7 GHz (b) 4.7 GHz
99.999
100 99.99
99.9
110 99
90
Path loss (dB)

CDF (%)

120 70
50
30
130 10 LSTM (train)
Meas. Conv. (train)
1 LSTM (test)
140 LSTM
.1 Conv. (test)
Conv. .01
.001
150 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
6600 6800 7000 7200 7400 Prediction error (dB)
Sample
(c) 26.4 GHz
(c) 26.4 GHz
Fig. 6. CDF of prediction errors.
Fig. 5. Example predictions for test data.
Fig. 7 shows the root-mean-square error (RMSE)
Fig. 6 shows the CDF of the prediction errors for the
comparison results between our method using LSTM and the
training data and the validation data at each frequency. In
conventional method. In both the training data and the
both our method and the conventional method, the median
validation data, the RMSE is 1 dB or smaller with our
error (50% value) is about 0 dB in both the training data and
method than with the conventional method. At 26.4 GHz, the
the validation data in any frequency band. On the other hand,
RMSE of the conventional method is 4 dB or more for both
the variance of our method is smaller than the conventional
training data and validation data, while the RMSE of our
method’s, and the variance of our method is in about ±10 dB
method is about 2.4 dB, and the RMSE is improved by 1.5
for all frequencies, training data, and verification data,
dB or more. This indicates a large path loss variation in the
indicating the training results are well generalized without
high frequency band and a large error with the conventional
overfitting.
method, while our method maintains the same high
prediction accuracy as other frequencies. The above shows
our method using LSTM could perform accurate predictions
in any frequency band measured including high frequency
bands.

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2.2 4.7
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 7. RMSEs of prediction results.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we proposed a method of predicting path
loss using LSTM, a type of RNN used in time series
prediction. The training data and validation data use the
measurement results of path loss at 2.2 GHz, 4.7 GHz, and
26.4 GHz in an urban environment. The median data
(median calculation interval 100 points) was predicted one
second ahead using the 100 points of the acquired fast fading
data as the input data. With our method, the prediction
accuracy of RMSE was about 2 dB, more than 1 dB smaller
than the conventional method using the latest observations in
any frequency band including high frequency band of 26
GHz.
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