Finite Element Method of Predicting GSM Radio Power Received in a Macrocell Environment

Abstract

The numerical solution of the partial differential equation (PDE) of the received signal strength from fixed transmitting stations as derived from Maxwell’s wave equation is presented in this paper. The received signal strength level (RSSL) at a defined distance from a source point (base transceiver station) was simulated for two real environments described as Sites 1 and 2. The values of RSSL were taken at different nodes and at different radial directions away from the source point using the Finite Element Method (FEM) tool of the MATLAB package. The hexagonal geometry with no describing function was assumed for the cell. A 3-D model of the power received versus distance was obtained, and the numerical solution of the model presented. The numerical results obtained from the 3-D model were compared with the results of the drive test conducted in Sites 1 and 2 for functional GSM radio networks in the areas. The suitability of the method was justified for the two sites with a 5.55dB standard deviation of error for network A in Site 1 and 8.36dB and 3.40dB standard deviations of error for networks A and B respectively for Site 2.

Received Signal Strength in a Macrocell in Lagos Environs Using Finite Element Method

“…As seen from table4.19 above, the Mean Prediction error is between 6.66dB to 12.89 dB, while that for the standard deviation error is 2.99 dB to 8.09 dB.…”

“…n is the refractive index of the environment got from the pathloss analysis as seen in Emagbetere and Edeko [4].…”

“…A model of the Received signal strength against the varying distance was plotted to yield the following plot, which corresponded to all (6) six sites. Quite a number of Researchers believe that for a Wireless mobile network to perform well, the standard deviation of error for the Macrocellular propagation prediction characteristic should be between the range of 8 dB to 10 dB [4]. The graphs for the contrast between the experimental measured values and the Finite element predicted values from tables 4.7 to 4.12 are shown below In conclusion, the range of the standard deviation of error of the propagation prediction for this research is within acceptable values of 8 dB to 10 dB.…”

“…In this paper, the use of finite element method will be employed in the analysis of the received signal strength. In Emagbetere and Edeko [4] the study considered two sites. This work is set to consider a metropolitan terrain of six sites.…”

Investigation of Causes of Call Drops in GSM Network: A Case Study of Zain Nig. Ltd. in Benin City, Nigeria

“…[1,2] Previous research works on GSM network have been on GSM network planning and optimization which is out to build up data for planning and design of GSM networks in Nigeria. Many researches were done on network planning and optimization in terms of coverage level ,accessibility ,index ,propagation path loss and quality, determing the number of sites required to provide sufficient coverage for locality and quality, determing the number of sites required to provide sufficient coverage for locality and to optimise quality of service delivery of GSM network to rural and urban environments [3,4,5]. A research was also done to build up data for planning and design of microwave links in Nigeria in order to improve mobile phone services [6].…”