Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Measurements of Building Attenuation in 450 MHz LTE Networks

Christian Sorgatz, Christian Lüders, Michael Rademacher

TL;DR

This paper tackles indoor attenuation of 450 MHz LTE (band 72) relevant to smart grid deployments by developing a modular measurement framework based on commercial off-the-shelf hardware to quantify downlink RSRP. A Python-based LTE Strength Mapper with a web UI enables non-experts to collect and visualize indoor and outdoor signal data mapped to floor plans. Measurements in three distinct buildings reveal highly heterogeneous attenuation driven by building type, indoor location, and floor height, with noticeable floor-height gains and no basement reception within the measurement sensitivity. The framework demonstrates potential for scalable data collection and can be extended to 5G networks, offering practical guidance for planning and deploying smart-grid connectivity.

Abstract

This work reports on a measurement study to estimate the attenuation of 450 MHz LTE networks. The LTE band 72 is currently deployed in Germany, in particular for smart grid applications. Due to this use-case, we assume that a significant amount of future devices will be deployed stationary and indoor which motivated our campaign. We designed a custom measurement device which uses commercial off-the-shelf hardware to assess the downlink RSRP of a public mobile network. In addition, a software has been developed to provide non-experts the possibility to conduct these measurements in the future. This software provides the possibility to determine the indoor position based on ground plans. We conducted measurements at three different buildings. Our results reveal, that the building attenuation of 450 MHz LTE networks is highly heterogeneous and mainly depends on the type of the building, the indoor position and in particular the height of the floor where the device is located.

Measurements of Building Attenuation in 450 MHz LTE Networks

TL;DR

This paper tackles indoor attenuation of 450 MHz LTE (band 72) relevant to smart grid deployments by developing a modular measurement framework based on commercial off-the-shelf hardware to quantify downlink RSRP. A Python-based LTE Strength Mapper with a web UI enables non-experts to collect and visualize indoor and outdoor signal data mapped to floor plans. Measurements in three distinct buildings reveal highly heterogeneous attenuation driven by building type, indoor location, and floor height, with noticeable floor-height gains and no basement reception within the measurement sensitivity. The framework demonstrates potential for scalable data collection and can be extended to 5G networks, offering practical guidance for planning and deploying smart-grid connectivity.

Abstract

This work reports on a measurement study to estimate the attenuation of 450 MHz LTE networks. The LTE band 72 is currently deployed in Germany, in particular for smart grid applications. Due to this use-case, we assume that a significant amount of future devices will be deployed stationary and indoor which motivated our campaign. We designed a custom measurement device which uses commercial off-the-shelf hardware to assess the downlink RSRP of a public mobile network. In addition, a software has been developed to provide non-experts the possibility to conduct these measurements in the future. This software provides the possibility to determine the indoor position based on ground plans. We conducted measurements at three different buildings. Our results reveal, that the building attenuation of 450 MHz LTE networks is highly heterogeneous and mainly depends on the type of the building, the indoor position and in particular the height of the floor where the device is located.
Paper Structure (13 sections, 1 equation, 6 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 13 sections, 1 equation, 6 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and Related Work
  3. Methodology
  4. Environment
  5. Building A
  6. Building B
  7. Building C
  8. Positioning
  9. Hardware
  10. Software
  11. Procedure
  12. Evaluation
  13. Summary and Future Work

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: The locations and shapes of the buildings in relation to the eNB (left, size of buildings not to scale). A visual impression of the buildings (right).
  • Figure 2: The sensor used for our measurements mounted on consumer tripod at a height of ca. 1.5 m.
  • Figure 3: Developed software framework for our measurement campaign.
  • Figure 4: 3D scatter plot of the measurements for building B.
  • Figure 5: Spread of the RSRP values per building. The boxplots are calculated from 255 (A), 1735 (B) and 923 (C) measurements.
  • ...and 1 more figures