Experimental Study of Mobile Propagation Loss Correction Formula for a Slope Terrain Area

Service area upgrading and expanding is expected in current and future cellular systems. Since residential areas on a hilly and/or slope terrain are spreading in the outskirts of cities in Japan, the correction for the urban mobile propagation loss formula becomes one of the important issues in radio link and cell layout designs in those areas, especially within 1km distance from a base station. This paper introduces an example of correction formula for the slope terrain area based on an experimental study of mobile path loss prediction. The result shows the path loss at the objective point can be estimated by the urban mobile path loss and the correction value according to the factor expressed by the elevation angle from the base station antenna top. Although the average slope angle is only used as a parameter in the conventional correction for the slope terrain area with at least 5 to 10km length, the result means it is not enough for the correction to the area within 1km distance from a base station.