Outdoor to Indoor Path Loss Measurement at 1.8GHz, 3.5GHz, 6.5GHz, and 26GHz Commercial Frequency Bands

Abstract

In the case of indoor coverage provided by an outdoor base station, outdoor to indoor (O2I) penetration loss and additional attenuation due to the building’s inner infrastructure are crucial factors in determining the received signal level. Different frequency bands have a fundamental impact on the propagation characteristics of the signal. Several licensed frequency bands are available for the deployment of commercial fifth generation (5G) of cellular network, 1.8GHz, 3.5GHz, 6.5GHz and 26GHz frequency bands are among them. The aim of this work is to learn about the impact of O2I and inner wall penetration loss. A campaign of static measurement is performed at four earlier mentioned frequency bands in TUAS building at Aalto University, Finland. Interestingly, a general trend is found that doubling the frequency of operation adds nearly 6dB propagation loss, and almost 6dB additional attenuation due to building penetration and inner wall penetration is added for new building type. Similarly, for four times frequency transition overall additional path loss is around 24dB. These results provide insight information for the mobile network operators (MNOs), which are planning the frequency transition of the network.