4/4/24, 15:13 5G Propagation Modeling

5G Propagation Modeling
Rachid Lamali Seguir
Solution Architect at Ericsson Spain
Fecha de publicación: 16 feb 2022

A propagation model is used to simulate the propagation channel between a

transmitter and a receiver. In short a propagation model is used to calculate the path
loss at a given distance (position) from the transmitter (Base station) to the receiver
(mobile).

Knowing the path loss value, it is possible to predict the signal level at the same
position by using the following formula:

Signal level (dBm) = Output power at the transmitter - Path loss - others loss + Gains

Others loss : Cable loss, building penetration loss, interference margin, .. etc

Gains : Base station antenna gain , Mobile antenna gain

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The development of a good propagation model is strategic for a mobile operators

since all the calculations are based on it, specially for green field planning where
baselining is based on the accuracy of the propagation model.

Th propagation modeling is an essential function in

any planning tool that is available in the market
and the tools can't simulate or optimize and predict
network performance without this function

In this article, I will describe some of the available propagation models available in the
market for the 5G frequency bands and will answer the famous question of any
planning engineer " which is the best propagation model I can use for my 5G network
coverage prediction ?" !

Certainly there are tens of propagation models used in different planning tools but in
this article , I will limit to the following propagation models used in some planning
tools and which support the 5G frequencies bands.

Planet Generic Model (PGM)

Do not confuse with Planet General Model which is different from Planet Generic
Model.

Planet Generic model do not support 3D prediction (building data) and it is used
mainly for 2D predictions (clutter + Height) or 2.5D Predictions (clutter + Height +
Clutter height) and the model is editable.

In case of Planet Generic Model, it can work for all the scenarios 2D, 2.5D and 3D. It
detect automatically the available maps and simulate accordantly. Also to notice that
this model is not editable and the frequency information is taken automatically from
the sector band configuration.

Planet 3D Model (P3M)

P3M model is a radial based profile generation model and it support frequencies from
100MHz to 60GHz, it has 3D capabilities and it has in-building penetration algorithm

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and it support all the environments (Macro, micro, and Pico cells). It can be also used
for mmWave

The Model works better if the building data is available and in case the building data is
not available , clutter height can be used instead of it. In case no 3D information is
available, the height per clutter can be entered manually.

Manual clutter height need to be set carefully as some sectors antenna height may
have lower value than the clutter height itself. In such cases the sector will be
considered as "an indoor" and the prediction will be not proper.

P3M is a statically pre-calibrated model and it is assumed that it does not require to be
tuned, but tuning the model using CW survey data is still possible.

In the following figure, will explain some important settings of P3M model:

Frequency : Set the carrier frequency for the propagation model

Use the building data in case it is imported in the project

Output resolution: recommend to use 5-10m for Urban environment as 1m will lead in very
high time calculation

Under Clutter properties tab , it is import to assign forest, agriculture , trees clutters into
"Forest" clutter type

Under General Tab, outer wall loss and pass through loss to be set. The values can be set
based on the local experience and mainly they are based on the wall thickness. The best way
is to perform an indoor measurement test in few building of the city and conclude the correct
values. The settings of these parameters affect the indoor predictions

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P3M model is part of Planet core module and it does not require additional license.

Universal Model (UM)

Universal Model is a high performing determinist model and it extract the propagation
profile from the raster geographic data in which each point is depend on both the
elevation and the clutter. The model also support the multi path in the path loss
calculation (4D ray tracing component).

The universal model is able to automatically adapt to all environments (Macro, Micro,
PICO,..) and to all clutter type (Dense Urban, Urban, Suburban and Open).

The UM support the frequency range from 150 MHz to 40GHz.

Some of the important settings are shown in the following figure:

Descargar la
Artículos Personas Learning Empleos
aplicación

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One of the interesting function of the universal model, the user can predict an Indoor
environment without having the building data and this is possible by assigning for a
specific clutter name, a clutter height, a clutter type and also the wall loss and the
inside loss as shown the below figure.

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Artificial Intelligence Model (AIM)

Planet AIM use the the artificial intelligence to evaluate the environment and use
millions of pre collected measurements world wide inside a pre calculated AI based
models in order to predict an accurate prediction.

The AIM model perform the following successive analysis

Scene analysis : in this step the environment is automatically classified as either "Macro cell"
or "Micro cell"

Vertical propagation: AIM calculate the vertical component

Horizontal propagation: AIM calculate the horizontal component which is important in case
of the Micro cell environment

Combine Machine learning (ML) output : at this stage AIM use a pre calibrated neural model
and both the vertical and the horizontal metric are aggregated in the final prediction

if we want to set the AIM model in similar way of previous models, then following
settings should be applied

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Aster Propagation Model

Aster propagation model is part of Atoll core package and it does not require a
separate license to run it but it require to be installed separately in case an upgrade to
the latest version is required.

Aster propagation model has a raytracing capabilities and support all technologies with
frequency range from 150 MHz to 5GHz.

But also a separate Aster model is available for mmWave band and support up to
60GHz

Aster provide high calculation results using raster building data for vertical and
horizontal diffraction calculations in addition to vector building data.

The default Aster propagation model default parameter are pre calibrated but can be
optionally tuned using CW measurements.

Below figure, illustrate some important Aster propagation settings:

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CrossWave Model

CrossWave is a universal model that support all technologies and frequency range from
200 MHz to 5 GHz. It support any type of micro, pico and macro cells and all types of
environments. CrossWave model relies on geographical data to determine a vertical
profile of the terrain between a transmitter and a receiver.

It is also statistically pre-calibrated by incorporating measurements from various

countries and environment types but it support automatic tuning based on CW
measurements.

One of the interesting feature in CrossWave model is that you can simulate the 3D
environment without having the building data. The idea is to set per clutter class, the
clutter type and also Wall loss and pass through loss.

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It is recommended to avoid using clutter data for the indoor simulation in case
building data is available.

Following are the important settings to be considered:

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Predictions Comparison

The aim of the prediction comparison is not to favorite one model to another model
but is to demonstrate that using different propagation models results in different
predictions plots, even by using the similar radio settings (same sites, antennas pattern
and height, frequency, power, wall loss, pass through loss...).

The network design engineer is free to choose any

5G propagation model but the most important
aspect is to verify the propagation model prediction
with a real measured data (Continuous Wave, Drive
Test, Crowd Source data, Call Trace,..)

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Below figure shows different coverage plots using various propagation models for a
sample site in Dense Urban environment with the following parameters :

-Frequency band : 3500 MHz

-Output Power: 200 Watts

-Antenna : 17 dBi Gain & 65 degree Beam Width

-Reference Signal Power : 18.2 dBm

-Antenna height : 30m

-Azimuth : 0/120/240

-MT & ET : 0/4

Thanks for reading !

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Mohd Nursyahmi Jamil 1 año

RF Planner Engineer at Ericsson

Superb!!!may i repost this sir?

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Manish Chaddha 2 años

Head of Delivery and Operations for RJIO @ Ericsson | Services Transformation | Sales & Project Management Leader |…

Excellent paper Rachid, very informative.

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Arnab B 2 años
Solution Architect at Ericsson

Very Nice Documentation Rachid!!

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Anupam Gupta 2 años

Wireless Technology 4G | 5G | RF Parameter | 3D Simulation | 3GPP | Application/Tool | GIS Tools | Data Analytics | Pyth…

Great documentation on major propagation models, thanks for sharing ..!!!

Recomendar · Responder 1 reacción

Abhay Sharma 2 años

RAN product and Solutions Lead at Bharti Airtel| Ex-Jio| 5G| DAS| ORAN| vRAN| Mobility l RF Planning and Optimization|

Informative

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