Atmospheric Propagation Modelling for Terrestrial Radio Frequency Communication Links in a Tropical Wet and Dry Savanna Climate

Development of a Multilayer Perception Neural Network for Optimal Predictive Modeling in Urban Microcellular Radio Environments

Modern cellular communication networks are already being perturbed by large and steadily increasing mobile subscribers in high demand for better service quality. To constantly and reliably deploy and optimally manage such mobile cellular networks, the radio signal attenuation loss between the path lengths of a base transmitter and the mobile station receiver must be appropriately estimated. Although many log-distance-based linear models for path loss prediction in wireless cellular networks exist, radio frequency planning requires advanced non-linear models for more accurate predictive path loss estimation, particularly for complex microcellular environments. The precision of the conventional models on path loss prediction has been reported in several works, generally ranging from 8–12 dB in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), which is too high compared to the acceptable error limit between 0 and 6 dB. Toward this end, the need for near-precise machine learning-based path loss prediction models becomes imperative. This work develops a distinctive multi-layer perception (MLP) neural network-based path loss model with well-structured implementation network architecture, empowered with the grid search-based hyperparameter tuning method. The proposed model is designed for optimal path loss approximation between mobile station and base station. The hyperparameters examined include the neuron number, learning rate and hidden layers number. In detail, the developed MLP model prediction accuracy level using different learning and training algorithms with the tuned best values of the hyperparameters have been applied for extensive path loss experimental datasets. The experimental path loss data is acquired via a field drive test conducted over an operational 4G LTE network in an urban microcellular environment. The results were assessed using several first-order statistical performance indicators. The results show that prediction errors of the proposed MLP model compared favourably with measured data and were better than those obtained using conventional log-distance-based path loss models.

Evaluation of Radio Communication Links of 4G Systems

Radio communication systems are very widely present in our current smart lifestyles. It consists of two ends, which can carry the transmitter’s information to the receptor. Before installing any radio communication system, it is necessary to analyze the link resources. Hence, this analysis allows the determination of the received radio communication strength to prove if it is sufficient for the link to work correctly and assure a high quality of service. For this reason, new services and technologies are integrated. The objective of the present work is to improve the performance of the radio communication link of 4G systems. The study is based on real measurements using the drive test. The data collected by the drive test are analyzed to increase the performance of the radio communication. Based on this data analysis, recommendations and suggestions are issued for improving the radio communication link. The obtained results indicate a significant amelioration in the performance of the radio communication link.