Development of an Empirical Propagation Path loss Model for an LTE Network in Onitsha, South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

In any Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, the propagation path between the transmitter and the receiver may vary from eNB to eNB. This also varies from a simple line-of-sight (LOS) to very complex one due to factors such as diffraction, reflecting and scattering (which could either be natural or man-made). Such propagation environments suffer from multipath propagation and large scale pathloss. Several research have been done to predict the pathloss of different environments using propagation models which were developed for different locations other than the region in question. In most cases, such acts lead to power wastages as the propagation environment differs. In this work, the propagation path loss for south-east Nigeria is determined using empirical measurements from specific sites in the region. The results of the measurements show that the pathloss exponent for the reference measurement environment is 3.79 and the shadowing factor is 9.22.