Path Loss, Scattering, and Multipath Delay Statistics in Four European Cities for Digital Cellular and Microcellular Radiotelephone

This paper presents typical and worst case root mean square (rms) delay spreads, excess delay spreads (10 dB) and mean channel path loss at 900 MHz in four European cities using typical cellular and microcellular antenna locations. A power law propagation model is used to determine how the mean wide-band channel path loss changes as a function of distance between a base and a mobile. It is shown that a change in reference distance from 1 km to 100m can change the perceived propagation power law exponent from 3.0 to 2.7, where free space propagation is assumed from the transmitter to the reference distance. The data reveal that for microcellular sites with low base antennas, rms delay spreads are less than 2 μs with excess delay spreads (10 dB) less than 6 μs. When high base station antennas are used, rms delay spreads are generally less than 8 μs and excess delay spreads (10 dB) are less than 16 μs. The worst case measurement with line-of-sight to the Frankfurt skyline produced a multipath component 7 dB below the direct component at an excess delay of 51.3 μs. The worst case rms delay spread is 19.6 μs. Radar cross sections (RCS) of common scatterers in cellular and microcellular radio channels are shown to range between −4.5 and +55.7 dBm2.