RTPLTool: a software tool for path loss modeling in 5G outdoor systems

Authors: CİHAN BARIŞ FINDIK, ÖZLEM ÖZGÜN

Abstract: The increase in the required bandwidth along with the global growth of existing wireless communication systems is one of the major reasons why research and industry communities are exploring 5G and millimeter-wave frequencies. The advantages of millimeter wave frequencies for 5G applications are a wide range of accessible and unlicensed spectrum, the use of small antennas in RF applications with increasing frequency, and low losses due to the interference effects compared to the currently used frequency bands. However, due to some computational challenges especially at millimeter waves (i.e. in FR2 frequency band), it is necessary to develop efficient software tools or to adapt new approaches in existing models for efficient propagation modeling. In this work, a web-based software tool has been developed to calculate propagation or path loss for 5G outdoor systems. Terrain profile and environmental data were obtained through web-based mapping services and digital elevation data. Two different ray-tracing techniques were applied with respect to the type of area, i.e. urban and rural areas. Quasi-3D ray-tracing techniques were used by using the data obtained from OpenStreetMap (OSM) for urban microcellular environments, whereas the shooting and bouncing ray (SBR) method was employed for rural terrain profiles gathered from the digital elevation data. The results of the developed software tool were compared with some measurement results and some results obtained from a commercial software program (i.e. WinProp) by considering real propagation scenarios. The software tool was developed as an ASP.NET web application on Microsoft Visual Studio via the MATLAB SDK Compiler.

Keywords: Fifth generation (5G) communication systems, ray-tracing, millimeter wavelength, outdoor propagation loss, wireless communication

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