Propagation Models for

5G

Dr. Garima Saini

Assistant professor
ECE, NITTTR Chandigarh
In a radio system, there may be large distances
(including hills, forests, buildings etc.) between the
transmit and the receive antennas.

This is the channel, the medium over which the signal

is propagated from the transmitter to the receiver.
 Channel Model
 Also known as radio wave propagation model
 it characterizes radio wave propagation as a function of
frequency, distance, environment, and other factors.

 In other words,
 channel model provides us rough idea about
how much distance a signal can travel in a certain
environment (like urban, suburban or rural etc.) with the
known transmitter and receiver height.
 Radio Channel Model

Physical Model Analytical Model

• based on the double directional • based on the mathematical
radio channel between the analysis of the channel
transmitter (Tx) and Receiver (Rx)
based on electromagnet wave
propagation

• classified into deterministic,

stochastic and geometry-based
stochastic
 Requirements of Channel Models
The requirements of the New channel model to support 5G
operation across frequency bands up to 100 GHz. The few of
them are listed below:-
Should support
Include joint
large antenna Must accommodate
propagation
arrays, mobility up to approx.
characteristics over
especially at 500 km/hr
different frequency
higher-
bands to evaluate
frequencies in Should be extendable to
multiband
millimeter-wave support scenarios such
operation, e.g.,
bands low-band and as device to device
high-band carrier (D2D) or vehicle to
Must support vehicle (V2V).
large channel aggregation
bandwidths configurations.
 Issues and Study of Radio Propagation
 5G Communication System based on phantom cell
concept
Phantom cell concept:- Small cells are overlaid on macro cells.
The macro cell BS is used for control signal while the small
cell BS is used for data signal.

I. In 5G NR high frequency bands , the frequency

characteristics for various types of propagation must be
known.
 New York University (NYU) & METIS have reported
several studies on 20 to 30 GHz & 50 to 70 GHz.
 Issues and Study of Radio Propagation

II. Factors Affecting Propagation : factors which have significant

effect on high frequency are
 Rainfall Attenuation

 Losses due to trees & plant- Clarified in ITU-R report

 Effects of shadowing by human body- considered in

proposal for channel model from MiWEBA

 Rough Surface Diffusion using ray tracing

Millimetre-Wave Evolution for Backhaul and Access

 5G Deployment Scenarios
As per 3GPP TR 38.900 following key deployment scenarios of
interest identified are
 Urban Micro (UMi) with
Outdoor to Outdoor (O2O)
 Outdoor to Indoor (O2I)

 In deployment scenario the Base Stations (BS) are mounted

below rooftop levels of the surrounding buildings.
UMi open area model is intended to capture real-life scenarios
such as a city or station square.
The width of the typical open area is in the order of 50 to
100 m.
Example: [Tx height:10m, Rx height: 1.5-2.5 m, ISD: 200m]
 Urban Macro (Uma) with
 Outdoor to Outdoor (O2O)
 Outdoor to Indoor (O2I):

 In deployment scenarios where Base Stations are mounted above

rooftop levels of surrounding buildings.
 Example: [Tx height:25m, Rx height: 1.5-2.5 m, ISD: 500m]
Indoor
These deployment scenarios are intended to capture various
typical indoor deployment scenarios, including
 Office environments,
 Shopping malls.

The typical office environment is comprised of open cubicle

areas, walled offices, open areas, corridors etc.
 Base Stations are mounted at a height of 2-3 m either on
the ceilings or walls.

 The shopping malls are often 1-5 stories high and may
include an open area shared by several floors.

 The BSs are mounted at a height of approximately 3 m on

the walls or ceilings of the corridors and shops.

 Example: [Tx height: 2-3m, Rx height: 1.5m, area:500 square meters]

 Backhaul, including outdoor above rooftop backhaul in
urban area and street canyon scenario where small cell BSs
are placed at lamp posts.

 D2D/V2V. Device-to-device access in the open area, street

canyon, and indoor scenarios. V2V is a special case where
the devices are mobile.

Light pole slim site

 Groups and projects with channel
models
 METIS (Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the
Twenty-twenty Information Society)
 MiWEBA (MIllimetre-Wave Evolution for Backhaul and
Access)
 ITU-R M
 COST2100
 IEEE 802.11
 NYU WIRELESS: interdisciplinary academic research center
 Fraunhofer HHI has developed the QuaDRiGa channel model
 Groups and projects which intend
to develop channel models

 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance: NIST initiated, North

America based
 mmMAGIC (Millimetre-Wave Based Mobile Radio Access
Network for Fifth Generation Integrated Communications):
Europe based
 IMT-2020 5G promotion association: China-based
 METIS Channel Models
 Identified 5G requirements
◦ e.g., wide frequency range, high bandwidth, massive MIMO, 3-D
and accurate polarization modelling

 Performed channel measurements at various bands between

2GHz and 60 GHz

 Provided different channel model methodologies

◦ Map-based model, stochastic model or hybrid model.

 For stochastic model, the proposed channel is focused on the

◦ Outdoor square
◦ Indoor cafeteria
◦ Indoor shopping mall scenarios.
 MiWEBA Channel Models
o Addressed various challenges:
o Shadowing
o Environment dynamics,
o Polarization etc.

o Proposed Quasi-deterministic channel model –

o Performed channel measurements at 60 GHz
o Focused on university campus,
o Street canyon
o Hotel lobby
o Backhaul
o D2D scenarios
 ITU-R Channel Models
o Addressed the propagation loss and atmospheric loss on mmW
o Introduced enabling antenna array technology

o Proposed deployment scenarios focused on dense urban

environment for high data rate service:
o Indoor shopping mall
o Indoor enterprise
o In home
o Urban hotspot in a square/street
o Mobility in city
 COST2100 Channel Models
o Geometry-based stochastic channel model that reproduce
the stochastic properties of MIMO channels over time,
frequency and space.

o It is a cluster-level model where the statistics of the large

scale parameters are always guaranteed in each series of
channel instances.
 NYU WIRELESS Channel Models
o Conducted many urban propagation measurements on -
28/38/60/73 GHz bands for both outdoor and indoor channel
measurements

o Proposed 3 areas for 5G mmWave channel modelling which are

small modifications or extensions from 3GPP’s current below
6GHz channel models
1)LOS/NLOS/blockage modelling (a squared exponential term)

2) Wideband power delay profiles

3) Physics-based path loss model

(using the existing 3GPP path loss equations, but simply replacing
the “floating” optimization parameter with a deterministic 1 m
“close-in” free space reference term)
802.11 ad/ay Channel Models

o Conducted ray-tracing methodology on 60 GHz band

indoor channels including
o Conference room
o Cubicle
o Living room scenarios

o Intra cluster parameters were proposed in terms of ray

excess delay and ray power distribution - Human blockage
models were proposed in terms of blockage probability
and blockage attenuation
 QuaDRiGa (Fraunhofer HHI)
o QuaDRiGa(QUAsi Deterministic RadIo channel GenerAtor)
was developed at the
o Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute to enable the
modelling of MIMO radio channels for specific network
configurations, such as
o Indoor
o Satellite or
o Heterogeneous configurations.

o Supports Massive MIMO modelling

o It will be continuously extended with features required by 5G
and frequencies beyond 6 GHz.
o The QuaDRiGa model is supported by data from extensive
channel measurement campaigns at 10 / 28 / 43 / 60 / 82
GHz
To assess the performance of 5G systems
 Multifrequency path loss (PL) models,
 LOS probability,
 Blockage models
need to be developed across the wide range of frequency
bands and for operating scenarios.

 Three PL models considered are

 Close-in (CI) free space reference distance PL model,
 Close-in free space reference distance model with frequency-
dependent path loss exponent (CIF)
 Alpha-Beta-Gamma (ABG) PL model

Source: Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments
 PLCI(f,d)[dB] = FSPL(f,1 m)+10nlog10(d/1 m)+XCIσ
where
f, frequency in Hz, n is the PLE, d is the distance in
meters, XCIσ is the shadow fading (SF), the free space path
loss (FSPL) at 1 m, with frequency f is given as:
 FSPL(f,1 m) = 20log10(4πf/c) where c is the speed of
light.

The ABG PL model is given as:

 PLABG(f,d)[dB] = 10αlog10(d) + β +10γ log10(f) + XABGσ
where α captures how the PL increase as the transmit-
receive distance (in meters) increases, β is a floating offset
value, γ is the PL variation over the frequency f in GHz,
and XABGσ is the SF term with standard deviation in dB.

Source: Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments
 The CIF PL model is an extension of the CI model and
uses a frequency-dependent path loss exponent given by:

 PLCIF(f,d)[dB] = FSPL(f,1 m)
+10n{1+b((f− f0)/ f0}(log10(d/1 m)+ XCIFσ

where
n denotes the path loss exponent(PLE),
b is an optimization parameter that captures the slope,
f0 is a fixed reference frequency,

Source: Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments
  In the CI PL model,
only a single parameter, the path loss exponent (PLE), needs
to be determined through optimization to minimize the SF
standard deviation over the measured PL data set

 In the CIF model

 there are 2 optimization parameters (n and b)

 In the ABG PL model

 there are three parameters which need to be optimized to
minimize the standard deviation (SF) over the data set

Increase in the PLE value as the frequency increases, whereas the PLE is not
very frequency dependent in outdoor UMa or UMi scenarios
 Indoor Channel Models
 High Frequency means smaller wavelengths
Introduce an increased sensitivity of the propagation models
 Show some frequency dependence of the path loss as well as
increased occurrence of blockage.
Further, the penetration loss is highly dependent on the
material and tends to increase with frequency.
3D-Indoor Hotspot (InH) channel model

 Bands up to 100 GHz

 Based on extensive measurements

 3D-Indoor Hotspot (InH) channel model

 Open cubicle areas, walled offices, open areas, corridors,

etc.,
where the partition walls are composed of a variety of
materials like sheetrock, concrete, glass etc.
 3D-Indoor Hotspot (InH) channel model

 LOS Probability
◦ Map-based approach,
 by considering the transmitter (AP) and receiver (UE)
positions

 Investigation on different indoor office environments

 Open-plan office with cubical area
 Closed-plan office with corridor and meeting room
 Hybrid-plan office with both open and closed areas.

Source: Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments
 3D-Indoor Hotspot (InH) channel model

 Model fits the propagation in indoor office environment

the best, of the three models evaluated:
PLOS =
1, d ≤ 1.2 m
exp(−(d−1.2)/4.7), 1.2 < d < 6.5 m
exp(−(d−6.5)/32.6)·0.32, d ≥ 6.5 m

 The new model has a good fit to the data in an average

sense and can be used for 5G InH scenario evaluations.

 However, note the high variability between different

deployments and degrees of openness in the office area.

Source: Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments
 Propagation Simulation Technology

 Ray Tracing method : Used to estimate propagation

characteristics in urban areas.

 Consideration
◦ Rays emitted from transmitter & arriving at the receiver
including paths composed of rays arriving at receiver after
reflecting many times between buildings
 Reflecting from edges of building
 Reflecting from ground
 Propagation Simulation Technology

Street
Reception Point

Transmission Point

Building Street

• Intersection Building scenario

• Parameters:-
Radius , a
Roughness of surface , h
• Conventional method
• The edges of the building at intersection is assumed to have square
corners
• Handles Building faces as smooth surfaces

• Parameters:-
• Radius , a=0
• Roughness of surface , h=0

Reception Point
Street

Transmission Point

Building Street
 Propagation Simulation Technology

• Distance from intersection

• At Low Frequency
• Conventional model Path loss results remain in good agreement
with measured values as distance from intersection increased

• At High Frequency
• The accuracy of estimate degraded as distance from intersection
increased.

• For 5G Communication system, the error at high frequency need to be

reduced.
 Propagation Simulation Technology
• Proposed method (NTT Docomo)
• The edges of the building at corners is assumed to be circular

• In EHF band the roughness of building surface is considered

•Parameters:-
Radius , a
Roughness of surface , h
Street

Reception Point

Transmission Point

Building Street
 Propagation Simulation Technology
• Surface Roughness & with Curved corners
• At Low Frequency
• Almost no variation between calculated & measured values

• At High Frequency
• The effect of surface roughness increases for frequency of 26GHz
& above

• It is also observed that the with fixed surface roughness value the
error value can be reduced
.
Street

Reception Point

Transmission Point

Building Street
 Propagation Simulation Technology

• Distance from intersection

• At Low Frequency
• Conventional model Path loss results remain in good agreement
with measured values as distance from intersection increased

• At High Frequency
• The accuracy of estimate degraded as distance from intersection
increased.

• For 5G Communication system, the error at high frequency need to be

reduced.
 LOS Probability Model
 The mobile industry has found benefit in describing path
loss for both LOS and NLOS conditions separately.

 LOS propagation will offer more reliable performance in

mmWave communications.

 The LOS probability is modeled as a function of the 2D

TX-RX (T-R) separation distance
 Solely based on the geometry and layout of an
environment or scenario
 UMi LOS Probability

Source: Overview of Millimeter Wave Communications for Fifth-Generation (5G) Wireless Networks-with a focus on Propagation Models
 References
 Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall
Environments
• Overview of Millimeter Wave Communications for Fifth-Generation (5G)
Wireless Networks-with a focus on Propagation Models
• Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall
Environments

• 3GPP TR 38.900