An Assessment of Path Loss Tools and Practical Testing of Television White Space Frequencies for Rural Broadband Deployments
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Master's Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Fall 2015 An Assessment of Path Loss Tools and Practical Testing of Television White Space Frequencies for Rural Broadband Deployments Braden Scott Blanchette University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Blanchette, Braden Scott, "An Assessment of Path Loss Tools and Practical Testing of Television White Space Frequencies for Rural Broadband Deployments" (2015). Master's Theses and Capstones. 1048. https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/1048 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN ASSESSMENT OF PATH LOSS TOOLS AND PRACTICAL TESTING OF TELEVISION WHITE SPACE FREQUENCIES FOR RURAL BROADBAND DEPLOYMENTS BY BRADEN SCOTT BLANCHETTE Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, The University of New Hampshire, 2013 THESIS Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering September, 2015 ii This thesis has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering by: Thesis Director, Dr. Nicholas Kirsch, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Michael Carter, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Richard Messner, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering On August 10, 2015 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. iii To my family. Without their support, this would have never happened. iv Acknowledgments This work was partially completed as part of the Broadband Center of Excellence (BCoE) Television White Space Trial. The BCoE provided immeasurable support through the pro- cess and made this work possible for which I am sincerely grateful. Learn more about the BCoE at http://www.unh.edu/broadband/. I would also like to thank my thesis advisor, Professor Nicholas Kirsch for providing me this opportunity and his guidance through the research, as well as taking time over his summer to help me complete this work. Gratitude also goes to the rest of my thesis committee, Professor Michael Carter, and Professor Richard Messner. Along with Professor Kirsch, they provided much needed guid- ance and wisdom throughout the process. The rest of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of New Hampshire was also instrumental in giving me the knowledge and motivation to complete this graduate work. Additionally, the other students in the Wireless Communications Lab were always avail- able to bounce ideas off of and help the research progress. Finally, my family deserves a lot of credit for keeping me motivated, fed, and sane throughout my entire schooling career. This could not have happened without them. Thank you all. v Table of Contents Dedication . iv Acknowledgments . v Table of Contents . vi List of Figures . ix List of Tables . xii List of Acronyms . xv Abstract . xvii CHAPTER PAGE 1. Introduction . 1 2. Background and Motivation . 7 2.1 Introduction . 7 2.2 Television White Spaces . 7 2.2.1 Regulations for Interference Avoidance . 8 2.2.2 TVWS Radio Development . 11 2.3 Path Loss . 12 2.3.1 Diffraction . 13 2.3.2 Reflection . 14 2.3.3 Scattering . 17 2.3.4 Link Budget . 18 2.3.5 Ground Effects . 19 2.3.6 Foliage Loss . 26 2.3.7 Multipath Fading . 31 2.4 Propagation Models . 32 2.4.1 Free Space Path Loss and the Two-Ray Model . 33 2.4.2 Egli Model . 35 2.4.3 Okumura-Hata Model . 36 vi 2.4.4 Okumura-Hata Model Modifications . 37 2.4.5 Stanford University Interim (SUI) Model . 39 2.5 The Longley-Rice or Irregular Terrain Model . 43 2.6 Radio Mobile . 45 2.6.1 Site Settings . 45 2.6.2 Modes of Variability . 46 2.6.3 Terrain Data . 47 2.6.4 Land Cover . 49 2.6.5 Planning Tools in Radio Mobile . 50 2.7 RuralConnect Radios . 54 2.7.1 Radio Signal Modulation . 56 2.7.2 Forward Error Correction . 59 2.7.3 Radio Performance Monitoring . 61 3. The Trial . 65 3.1 Introduction . 65 3.2 Phase I: Initial Deployment . 68 3.3 Phase II: Kingsbury Hall Base Station and the Stoke Hall Sector Antenna Installation . 71 3.4 TVWS Trial Analysis Tools . 73 3.5 Active Client Locations . 76 3.5.1 Dimond Library and Thompson Hall . 76 3.5.2 InterOperability Laboratory (IOL) . 80 3.5.3 Durham Library . 82 3.6 Prospective Client Locations . 88 3.6.1 Madbury Library . 88 3.6.2 Barrington Library . 93 3.6.3 Lee Library . 97 3.7 Trial Conclusions . 101 4. Predicting Radio Performance . 103 4.1 Introduction . 103 4.2 The Measurement Campaign . 105 4.2.1 Spectrum Measurements . 106 4.2.2 Modulation Measurements . 109 4.2.3 Performance Metrics . 112 4.3 Comparison of the results to Empirical Models . 113 4.3.1 Egli Model . 113 4.3.2 The Okumura-Hata Model, and the Tuned Okumura-Hata Model . 114 vii 4.3.3 SUI Model and Terrain Categories . 118 4.3.4 Empirical Model Prediction Performance . 124 4.4 Radio Mobile and the Longley-Rice Model . 126 4.4.1 Reliability and Statistical Parameters . 128 4.4.2 The Use of Accurate Terrain and Clutter Data . 128 4.4.3 Environmental and Network Settings . 131 4.4.4 Results from Radio Mobile . 131 4.5 Using Path Loss to Predict Performance . 139 4.5.1 Locations Where Path Loss is Underpredicted . 140 4.5.2 Locations Where Path Loss is Overpredicted . 144 4.5.3 Locations Where Path Loss is Accurately Predicted . 147 4.6 Conclusions . 152 5. Conclusions and Future Work . 155 5.1 Future Work . 158 Bibliography . 167 APPENDICES A. A Summary of the Antennas Used . 171 B. Additional Measurement Information . 173 B.1 More Measurement Location Maps . 173 B.2 A Note on Speed Test Results . 177 viii List of Figures 2.1 Spectrum availability throughout the US according to Google's spectrum database . 9 2.2 Example of diffraction of the top of a hill where the ray can \bend" into the shadow region . 14 2.3 Example of the signal reflecting off the ground to arrive at the receiver . 14 2.4 Reflection coefficient off flat ground for horizontal and vertical antenna polar- ization . 16 2.5 Example of the signal scattering off a leaf of a tree and the resultant scattered wave leaving in all directions . 17 2.6 Diagram of wireless communications channel . 19 2.7 Diagram showing how an obstruction can be represented as a diffracting knife edge . 21 2.8 Equivalent screen representation of multiple knife edges proposed by Bullington 24 2.9 Representation of edges for the Epstein-Peterson and Deygout methods for multiple knife edges . 25 2.10 Loss due to foliage as predicted by the Weissberger Model . 27 2.11 Loss due to foliage as predicted by the ITU-R Model . 28 2.12 Loss due to foliage as predicted by the Fitted ITU-R Model . 29 2.13 Loss due to foliage as predicted by the Fitted ITU-R Model that accounts for the lateral wave . 30 2.14 Loss due to foliage as predicted by each of the models discussed at 533 MHz 31 2.15 Comparison of the different path loss models . 42 2.16 Comparison of default and adjusted clutter.