Comparison of measurement based and site specific ray based microcellular path loss predictions

The development of mature systems for personal communication services (PCS) are envisioned to employ base station antennas at lamp post heights covering distances of 1 km or less. Prediction of the path loss for such low antennas is required to determine the actual shape of individual cells, and to evaluate interference with neighboring cells. The performance of site specific ray tracing methods based on UTD to predict the path loss are compared against measurement based models and measurements. An empirical formulation based on a simple least squares regression fit from one site is used as a prediction tool at another site having similar building environment. Comparing the accuracy of both types of prediction models, it is found that the site specific method provides an improvement over the traditional method of measurement based path loss prediction