The 22nd Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE 2014), May 20-22, 2014, Shahid Beheshti University
Effects of Terrain Factors in 900 MHz GSM Urban
Cells and A Pathloss Estimation Approach
Ramiyar Heydari, Iman M.Sharifi, Maryam Sedghi
Electrical Engineering Department
Razi University
Kermanshah, Iran
hramiyar@gmail.com
Abstract— Increasing the capacity and coverage of cellular
communication systems requires applying accurate propagation
models which consider the influences of surrounding complicated
environment on the transmitted signal. In this paper, the
agreement of the measured values of received signal strength in
900 MHz band, with predicted data has been investigated and
analyzed in an urban cell in Kermanshah, Iran. The results
indicate that Hata-Okumura is the best prediction model for this
region. Although the MSE for our narrowest path was about 2
dBs, for wider streets the MSE increased up to 10 dBs. We
applied gradient descent algorithm to measured data to fit the
model for our terrain. The modified model decreased the MSEs
down to 2dBs for most of locations.
Keywords— Pathloss Propagation models; Gradient descent,
2G; Drive test;Cellular communications; Hata-Okumura
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent decades rapid growth of mobile communications
has changed life of people extensively. Cellular communication
is the structure which is used in mobile communications.
Accurate prediction of coverage is the most important issue for
reliable design of a modern cellular network which provides
our vital need for high quality and high capacity network. In
order to achieve this goal, imperatively, we need an accurate
and dependable propagation model for network design and
analysis. Since the propagation environments consist of
complicated components such as buildings, vegetation, moving
vehicles and climate status, obtaining an exact propagation
model is too sophisticated; however, there are empirical
models which consider propagation factors such as diffraction,
reflection, scattering, etc. Numerous signal strength
measurements have been considered in different environments
to provide these empirical models. Hata-Okumura, Clutter
factor and Bertoni-Walfish are some of well-known models.
Distance, frequency range and clutter type of the environment
(urban, suburban or rural area) are the parameters on which the
models are depend.
In this paper, we will present a comparative analysis for 2G
networks in Ferdowsi region (an urban area in Kermanshah, a
large city in the west part of Iran). The results are compared to
these three models. No meticulous measurements had been
made at the frequency of 900MHz for mobile communication
networks previously. So it can help us obtain a realistic image
of the situation in Ferdowsi region.
978-1-4799-4409-5/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 1555
Shahpour Alirezaee, Majid Ahmadi
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
University of Windsor
Ontario, Canada
s.alirezaee@uwindsor.ca
In the next section, we explain three well-known empirical
models which have been considered as our study, i.e. Hata-
Okumura, Bertoni-Walfisch and clutter factor models. In the
third section, we present a comprehensive analysis on the
situation of area terrain and also our defined urban factors.
Furthermore, we discuss about the measurement method and
gathering required data. Analysis of these data and comparing
them with empirical models is the main theme of the fourth
section. Afterward, we will introduce and implement an
algorithm to obtain a modified model for defined area terrain.
Finally, the conclusions will be presented in the last sections.
II. EMPIRICAL PROPAGATION MODELS
Empirical models are obtained based on measurements and
observations. Each model is appropriate to special factors, such
as geographical circumstances, operating frequency etc. The
Hata-Okumura, the Bertoni-Walfisch and the Clutter Factor are
models which we can use in 900MHz frequency.
A. The Hata-Okumura Model
Hata-Okumura [1] is the model used as comparison data with
other authors reports and also is the propagation prediction
methods in the report have become standard for planning in
today’s land mobile systems in Japan.
The method involves dividing the prediction area into a series
of clutter and terrain categories, namely open, suburban and
urban. In Okumura’s prediction method, prediction curves for a
basic median field strength were given by the following
parameters:
-Base station effective antenna height hb
-Frequency fc,
-Vehicular station antenna height hm.
Based on the Okumura's prediction curves, the Hata-
Okumura model is developed as follows [2]:
Urban areas: L ( dB )  A  B log( R )  E
Suburban areas: L ( dB )  A  B log( R )  C
Open areas: L (dB )  A  B log( R )  D (1)
Where:
A  69.55  26.16 log( f c )  13.82 log( hb )
B  44.9  6.55 log(hb )
fc 2
C  2(log( ))  5.4
28
2
D  4.78(log( f c ))  18.33 log( f c )  40.94
 E  hm (1.1log( f c )  0.7)  (1.56 log( f c )  0.8) ; for medium to III. METHODOLOGY, TERRAIN SITUATION AND FACTORS
small cities A. Measurement Methodology
B. The Bertoni-Walfisch Model RF drive testing is the procedure to evaluate performance
of wireless system in motion (driving, biking etc.).It helps
This Bertoni-Walfisch model is a combination of empirical perform various measurements. A specially equipped car is
and theoretical approaches to estimate the path loss in the absolutely necessary for drive test. In the car, the test system
frequency range of 800 - 2000 MHz in urban environment. For consists of a computer, a GPS receiver and a mobile terminal.
a plane terrain, in 900MHz path loss can be predicted by [3]: The computer is used to control calls of mobile terminal, send
db 2 2 and receive internet services. Of course, the computer is also
PL ( dB )  147.2  5 log[( )  (hb  hm ) ]  used for the data post processing. The GPS receiver can receive
2 the location information sent by satellites. The mobile terminal
1 2( hb  hm ) is used to originate calls, access wireless networks, and collect
9 log( d b )  20 log[tan ( )]  (2) network information [6]. In order to obtain pass loss, firstly we
db
need to convert geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude)
18 log( h  hb )  38 log( R ) to distance. The formula is given by:
The model structure is shown in Fig. 1 and parameters are
as follows: 1  
d  6370000 cos (cos(  t1 ) cos(  t2 ) 
- db is distance of center-center spacing of the rows of the 2 2
building in meters, (4)
- hb is the average height of the building in meters  
sin(  t1 ) sin(  t 2 ) cos( n1  n2 ))
- hm is the height of the mobile antenna in meters 2 2
-h is the height of the base station transmitter antenna in Where
meters t1: latitude of the reference point (here is the BS position)
-R is the distance between the station base and the mobile t2: latitude of the measurement point
antenna in Km[4]. n1: longitude of the reference point (here is the BS position)
n2: longitude of the measurement point
Required equipment and their connections have been
shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 1: Bertoni-Walfisch Model Structure

C. The Clutter Factor

Measurements taken in urban and suburban areas usually
find a path loss exponent close to 4, same as in the plane earth
loss but with a greater absolute loss value. This led to some
models being proposed which consist of the plane earth loss
plus an extra loss component called the clutter factor. Various
models differ basically in the values, which they assign
to k and n for different frequencies and environments. An
example of clutter factor model is the method due to Egli,
which is based upon a large number of measurements
taken around American cities.
The total loss defined by this model is shown in equation
below [5]:
L  40 log( R )  20 log( f c )  20 log( hm )  Lm
Where:
Lm  76.3  10 log(hm ) ; for hm<10
Lm  76.3  20 log( hm ) ; for hm>10 (3)
Figure 2: Drive test equipment and their connections
B. Terrain Situation
Our terrain is an area in the southern part of Kermanshah
(latitude: 34°19′N, longitude: 47°04′E, elevation above sea
level: 1400m) known as Ferdowsi. Although this district is an
urban area, a 500 meter radius around our specified BS is only
under cover of that BS. Therefore we do not have handover
problems during our measurements. In addition, if we consider
our area a circle, in different angles with similar radius, we
have completely different points in terms of urban fabric.
These are the main reasons that persuade us to choose this
region for our measurements. We divide our area to 8 different
parts according to their specifications in topology and height of
buildings, vegetation and width of our passages. Characteristics
of each part have been brought in Table I. and location of each
part is shown in Fig. 3.

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C. Factors 6 20 Regular Low/Medium/ Line of trees
We defined street width, order of buildings, height of meters High rise
buildings and vegetation as the factors which considered the 7 12 Irregular Low/Medium Without any
most influential and significant in received signal and path loss meters rise tree
propagation. In this part, we are going to explain effects of 8 30 Regular Low rise A few
meters Individual tree
these factors concisely.
1) Street width: The width of non-line-of-sight Street
affects the path loss distribution. we divided our passage in to
three types according to their width:
a) 8 to 12-meter path which we called "alley "
b) 12 to 20-meter path which we called "street "
c) More than 20-meter path which we called "avenue "
2) Order and height of buildings: Building height
variations cause increment of the average of the multiple
diffraction loss components[7]. Furthermore, the amount of
this increment in decibel depends on the ratio of the building
height variance to the product of the wavelength and building
separation[7]. Space between Buildings and building dis-
alignment are two more important operatives. The first
operative will cause leakage in received signal and increment
in path loss and the second one is the main reason of
disturbance and irregularity in observed path loss. Height of
buildings are obstacles that can block line-of-sight Figure 3: Location of each division on map of the area.
propagation. Edge of buildings is also the main cause of
diffraction. The higher the buildings, the more the path loss. IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Our classification is given below: Fig.3, shows the exact paths in which we did our
a) 3-6 meter: low-rise building measurements. we chose our path almost radial intentionally
b) 6-9meter:medium-rise building and each radius locates in a different urban fabric.
c) more than 9meter: high-rise building We can also observe the detailed characterizations of each
3) Vegetation: Shadowing is the effect of existence of location based on main factors and have a relative comparison
trees on path loss propagation. In our measurement, we between each two locations in Table I.
encountered with two cases: Fig.4, shows measured path loss (in dB) versus distance from
the BTS (in Km) for each location, separately. In Fig.4, the
a) single tree: An individual tree can cause significant
differences between our measured path loss and predicted
shadowing in a small area directly behind the tree[8], but
values of empirical models is also noticeable. Each graph is
diffraction around the tree will return the fields farther behind
indicated in a special color to be easily recognizable.
to its unshadowed value.
The MSE of each location has been calculated so that we can
b) Lines of trees: Situated in streets and avenues along see the precise agreement with or difference from all three
buildings. This can reduce signal strength by a few decibels predicted models, separately. These results are shown in Table
[9]. II.
TABLE I. C OMPARISON BETWEEN LOCATIONS
Clearly, we see that the Clutter Factor model and Bertoni-
Walfish model are not suitable with the geographical factors
Location Street Order Height Vegetation
ID width buildings buildings and urban fabric of this area. The average MSE for Clutter
(m) Factor and Bertoni-Walfish model is 17.874 and 15.897,
1 8 Quite Low/Medium Individual tree respectively, which they seem quite large numbers.
meters regular rise
2 6 Regular Medium rise Individual tree
meters
3 8 Quite Low rise Individual tree
meters regular
4 8 Irregular Low/High rise Without any
meters tree
5 20 Quite Medium rise Line of trees
meters regular

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 Figure 4: Comparison between measurements with empirical models

L (dB )  A  B log( R )  E (5)

TABLE II. MSE FOR EACH LOCATION IN HATA-OKUMURA,
BERTONI-WALFISCH AND C LUTTER FACTOR MODELS Simply, we can consider the equation below as an equivalent
for Hata-Okumura equation:
Location Mean Square Error (dB) L (dB )  a1  a2 log( R ) (6)
Number Hata- Bertoni- Clutter Where a1 and a2 are actually the coefficients that are going
Okumura Walfisch Factor
1 5.289 18.128 17.629 to be modified. In this study, we should use an algorithm for
2 2.384 18.204 23.346 finding the optimum coefficients of Hata-Okumura model to
3 1.974 4.488 21.228 minimize MSE.
4 5.932 12.140 16.494 Many existing algorithm can solve this issue, but we use
5 6.920 17.281 16.761 gradient descent method for nonlinear regression [10].
6 10.861 16.834 13.650 Because this algorithm not only does not use complex
7 7.039 9.309 15.008 equations but also can approximate coefficients with high
8 10.758 30.815 18.882 precision.
A. Gradient Descent for Nonlinear Regression
Obviously, we can conclude that Hata-Okumura model has
the most concordance with our measurements in comparison The initial idea for nonlinear regression is similar to linear
with two other models. Although we see an acceptable regression, allied a response Z to a vector of variable
agreement with Hata-Okumura model in some locations, in X ( x1 ,., xk )T .Nonlinear regression can anticipate equation
others, our calculated MSE has reached to 10 dBs which is nonlinearly on one or more unknown parameter. A nonlinear
not so near to our measurements. Hence we want to present a regression model has the form:
modified model according to Hata-Okumura that its
coefficients have been tuned by using special mathematical Zi  h  xi ,     (7)
algorithms. Gradient descent is the algorithm we want to
Where Zi are responses, h is known function of covariate
apply to Hata-Okumura equation to obtain a modified model
according to our measured values. This model and its vector X ( x1, x2 , x3 ,..., xi )T ,  (1 ,2 ,..., K ) are the parameters
equations and applications will introduce and describe in and  are the errors. After ascertaining a function the error
next part. of the data and sample would be minimize. Gradient descent
V. PROPOSED APPROACH is the minimizer algorithm. It minimizes the error by using
square error functions named cost function.
As discussed in previous sections, general form of Hata-
Okumura equation for urban areas is: Cost function of gradient descent is:

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 1 m
2 change dramatically. Therefore we set  1 and  2 as final
J ( 1,  2 ) 
2m
 h 1 ,2
( xi )  yi  (8)
value.
i 1
We can see a comparison between coefficients of Hata-
h ,  1   2 log( R ) (9) Okumura and the modified model in Fig.5. Fig.6, indicates
1 2
how much the modified model has approached to measured
Where: values in comparison with predicted values of Hata-
Okumura. Clearly, we observe the descent of the MSE
m is number of data sample proportion to previous values for Hata-Okumura model in
yi is sample measurements
Table III.

TABLE III. MSE FOR EACH LOCATION IN HATA-O KUMURA AND

Gradient descent minimizes the cost function by changing  1 MODIFIED HATA-OKUMURA MODEL
and  2 parameters.
1 and 2 consecutively change during this equation: Location Mean Square Error (dB)
Number Hata- Modified Hata-
J ( 1,  2) Okumura Okumura
   (10)
1 1
 1 1 5.289 1.515
2 2.384 1.807
J ( 1,  2 ) 3 1.974 1.799
  2 2

 2
(11) 4 5.932 1.171
5 6.920 3.938
6 10.861 2.000
Where  1 and  2 are a1 and a2 respectively in (6). After 7 7.039 1.699
some irritations the error reach a value which wouldn't 8 10.758 0.813

Figure 5: Comparison between coefficients of Hata-Okumura and the modified model

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 Figure 6: Comparison between measurements with Hata-Okumura model and modified model
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The MSE calculated for each location shows that Hata-
Okumura model has more agreement for alleys with less
width. For narrower alleys is about 2 decibels. Moreover,
locations with less regularity in buildings order are closer to
Hata-Okumura prediction model; however, the Clutter Factor
model and Bertoni-Walfish model are not suitable for our
region at all. These results approve the importance of terrain
situation factors, such as street width, vegetation and topology
of buildings, in obtaining more accurate path loss prediction
model. By tuning the coefficients of Hata-Okumura equation,
we gained a much better model for our situation. The MSE
for almost all of locations decreased down to 2 dBs which
shows the high accuracy of the modified model.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are pleased to express our gratitude to S.V.Makki, the
head of Razi Institute Telecommunication Research (RITR)
for his sincere contributions.
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