ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION OF PATHLOSS IN SELECTED ENVIRONMENTS IN AKWA IBOM STATE

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Since the essential goal of any Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) service provider is to provide excellent services to her subscribers, which might be impeded by many effects like reflection, refraction, diffraction, scattering and absorption, which introduce path loss to radio communication between the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) of the provider and the mobile unit (MU) of the subscriber, it becomes imperative to constantly investigate and model this pathloss which is likewise affected by landscape forms, condition (urban or rural, vegetation and foliage), propagation medium (dry or clammy air), the separation between the transmitter and the receiver, and the stature and area of antennas, (Goldsmith, 2005).

 Wireless communication technology is influencing every area of modern life, and has encouraged useful researches in nearly all fields of human endeavor. Cellular services are today being used by millions of people worldwide. The first generation network of wireless technology was analog in nature, known as 1G. It uses Frequency Code Division Multiplex Access. The second generation network uses digital modulating formats and the main technology is Time Division Multiplexes Access (TDMA) and Code Division Multiplex Access (CDMA). The second generation has some popular application such as wireless application protocol (WAP) General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), High Speed Circuit Switches Data (HSCSD), and Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE).The third generation (3G) wireless network such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA 2000) is designed to facilitate high speed data communications in addition to voice calls, Wide band sequence code multiple access (W-CDMA) and also Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). (Obot 2011).

Pathloss is a significant parameter in the investigation and structure of a radio communication system and it assumes an indispensable job in the remote communication at network arranging level. Pathloss or path constriction is an undesirable acquaintance of energy tending to meddle with the best possible gathering and proliferation of the signs during its excursion from transmitter to recipient. The strength of electromagnetic wave diminishes as it engenders through space, this occurs because of losses exist in path. The sign pathloss influences numerous parameters of the radio communications. Because of this, it is important to perceive the purposes behind radio pathloss, and to have the option to decide the degrees of the sign loss for a given radio path. Amaldi et al (2008).

 Practically, it is relatively difficult to find a method of signal estimation that achieves a generic estimate with respect to time-signal variation. This is because the performance of the wireless channel depends on the dynamically varying properties of the wireless channel, its terrain characterization and land use per time. As a result, getting a well-defined model which appropriately covers all propagation phenomena in a given environment will require an accurate computation of the median pathloss and a statistical modeling of other attenuations likely to occur (Seybold, 2005).

In remote communication the losses happened in the middle of transmitter and beneficiary is known as spread path loss. Pathloss is the undesirable decrease in power signal which is transmitted. We measure this pathloss in various zone like rural, urban, and suburban with the assistance of proliferation pathloss models. Remote communications give great data exchange between versatile gadgets found anyplace on the planet. These models can be comprehensively classified into three kinds; experimental, deterministic and stochastic. Experimental models are those dependent on perceptions and estimations alone. These models are for the most part used to predict the pathloss, however models that predict downpour blur and multipath have additionally been proposed. The deterministic models utilize the laws administering electromagnetic wave spread to decide the got signal power at a specific area. Deterministic models regularly require a total 3-D guide of the proliferation condition. A case of a deterministic model is a beam following model. Stochastic models, then again, model the earth as a progression of arbitrary factors. These models are the least precise yet require minimal data about nature and utilize substantially less preparing power to produce predictions. Experimental models can be part into two subcategories to be specific, time dispersive and non-time dispersive. Akinyemi (2004).

The gradual loss in power density of an electromagnetic wave as it propagates from the source to the receiver is a problem to network providers. For cellular network to effectively cover a terrain or environment, accurate prediction of the coverage of the radio frequency signal is highly needed. Wave propagation models are essential and very important tools in determining the propagation characteristics for a particular environment. Micheal and Emem (2014).

Thus, this study is geared towards examining the consistency or variability of models with measured pathloss, in order to determine the propagation model which best predicts the pathloss of measured data with the least Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) in the environment of study. This model will be used as a basis for predicting the path loss of measured data with improved signal prediction.

This research presents Pathloss estimation and demonstration for Akwa Ibom State Non-Urban, Urban, Sub-Urban and Dense-Urban G.S.M environments. It was brought out with information assortment through drive test, utilizing TEMS programming software in the picked conditions, over a separation distance of 0.5-10Km from Base station (BS) to Mobile station (MS) with estimation taken at 0.5Km for a period of 52 weeks.

Pathloss were measured in all areas of investigation under 2G and 3G frequencies of 900MHz, 1800MHz AND 2100MHz respectively. Twelve (12) different sites location were covered and analyzed.

The growing need for excellent performing wireless infrastructure, high data rate transmission has also resulted in the investigation of propagation mechanisms of higher-order frequencies, with enormous prospects in increasing data rate with respect to higher bandwidth. To combat wireless channel deficiencies such as poor signal quality, blocked calls, dropped calls and interference problem during conversation, this prompted the study of pathloss as one of the possible causes of these problems and also provide models for prediction purposes since engineering is meant to solve human technical challenges. Pathloss prediction estimation provides an approximation used for the development of models that predicts the signal strength of any given terrain, (Janakiraman, 2015).

 

Considering the enormous prospects in mobile network technology, integration also poses practical challenges in terms of network planning, implementation, pilot-pollution analysis and cell parameter evaluation with respect to the given terrain. To alleviate this challenge, propagation models can be tuned or developed with respect to the investigated environment. Essentially, these models are suitable for wireless communication planning, pilot pollution analysis, frequency allocation and cell parameters estimation as reported, (Abhayawardhana, 2005). 

The aim of this project is to carry out analysis and computer simulation of pathloss in some selected environments in Akwa Ibom State.

The objectives of this project are:

The scope of this project is for Akwa Ibom State G.S.M environments. Strategically, based on terrain characteristics, Obot-Akara was chosen as NonUrban (NU) with vegetation and low buildings. Ikot-Ekpene was Sub-Urban (SU) with buildings not blocked. Eket was chosen as Urban (UR) with vegetation and buildings and Uyo was Dense Urban (DU) with tall buildings and obstructions. These were chosen as study areas with twelve base stations, Base Station1 (BS1) - Base Stationl2 (BS12), three of which are located in each environment respectively.

This project is limited to 2G (900MHz / 1800MHz) and 3G (2100MHz) frequencies of Non-Urban, Sub- Urban, Urban and Dense-Urban G.S.M environments in Akwa Ibom State, the field measured data used for analysis is for a period of 12 months, further future research can include 4G-LTE (GSM) Networks AND 5G Network.

The research work is organized into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction, Chapter two is the literature review, chapter present the materials and method used in carrying out the research, chapter four is the results and discussion. Finally chapter five is the recommendation and conclusion.