70 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 2, NO.

3, MARCH 1998

5.85-GHz Radio Path Loss and Penetration Loss

Measurements In and Around Homes and Trees
Greg Durgin, Student Member, IEEE, Theodore S. Rappaport, Fellow, IEEE, and Hao Xu, Student Member, IEEE

Abstract This letter contains measured data and empirical

models for 5.85-GHz radio propagation path loss in and around
residential areas for the newly allocated National Information
Infrastructure (NII) band in the U.S. Three homes and two
stands of trees were studied for outdoor path loss, tree loss, and
house penetration loss in a narrow-band measurement campaign
that included 270 local area path loss measurements and over
276 000 instantaneous power measurements. The data will aid the Fig. 1. Transmitters and receivers at different heights and separation dis-
development of futuristic outdoor-to-indoor wireless unlicensed tances.
NII systems (in the U.S.) and HIPERLAN systems (in Europe)
for home Internet access, telecommunications, and wireless local
loops. II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Outdoor and indoor path loss measurements were taken at
Index Terms Building penetration, in-building propagation, three houses: the Rappaport, Woerner, and Tranter homes.
path loss, residential wireless communications. Local area averages of received power, each measured over
a 1-m area, were used to calculate path loss values in order
I. INTRODUCTION to eliminate the influence of small-scale fading. Repeated
calibrations of hardware were made at each site to ensure the
R ESIDENTIAL and campus-wide wireless-communica-
tion networks may soon proliferate due to recently al-
located spectrum for National Information Infrastructure (NII)
stability of the measurement system.
At each home the outdoor transmitter antenna was placed
3045 m from the house at a height of 5.5 ma typical utility
systems in the U.S. and HIPERLAN radio spectrum in Europe.
pole height. About 24 measurements were taken along the
Both NII and HIPERLAN frequency bands are in the 56-
front and back of each house with receivers at heights of
GHz range. Path loss increases at frequencies higher than
1.5 (head level) and 5.5 m. Path loss measurements were
PCS (1.9 GHz) or cellular (0.9 GHz) systems for propagation
then recorded in every room of the house, on the first,
into homes and through indoor environments [1], [2]. This
second, and basement levels of each home. Then, the outdoor
letter summarizes an experimental campaign and resulting
transmitter antenna was moved to a distance of 150210 m
measurements and models for outdoor path loss, tree and house
from the same house and kept at a height of 5.5 m and the
shadowing loss, and home penetration loss for residential
sequence of measurements outside and inside of the house was
wireless links operating at 5.85 GHz [3].
repeated. Fig. 1 demonstrates the different receivertransmitter
All path loss values reported in this letter are with respect
configurations.
to 1-m free space path loss, which is independent of receiver,
A stand of deciduous beech trees and a stand of coniferous
transmitter, and antenna gains and losses. Path loss with
pine trees were also measured to determine tree shadowing
respect to 1-m free space fits into the link budget of (1):
loss at 5.85 GHz. The transmitter was placed transverse to the
line of trees and about 20 measurements were taken along the
[Path Loss w.r.t. 1-m FS] front and back of the tree line using receiver heights of 1.5
and 5.5 m.
(1)
III. PATH LOSS EXPONENTS
where is wavelength (0.05 m at 5.85 GHz), and are Path loss with respect to 1-m free space can be described
transmitter and receiver antenna gains in decibels, and and by a simple distance-dependent model as
are transmitter and receiver powers in dBm.
[dB] (2)
where is the average path loss value in decibels at a
Manuscript received October 15, 1997. The associate editor coordinating
the review of this letter and approving it for publication was Prof. V. S. Frost. transmitterreceiver (TR) separation of (in meters) and is
The authors are with the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group, the path loss exponent that characterizes how rapidly the path
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Poly- loss increases with increasing TR separation [4]. The in (2) is
technic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA (e-mail:
gdurgin@vt.edu). the calculated value that minimizes the squared error between
Publisher Item Identifier S 1089-7798(98)02821-X. measured and predicted path loss in decibels for a large group
10897798/98$10.00 1998 IEEE
DURGIN et al.: 5.85-GHz RADIO PATH LOSS AND PENETRATION LOSS MEASUREMENTS
TABLE I
SUMMARY OF PATH LOSS EXPONENTS FOR VARIOUS TR
CONFIGURATIONS AT 5.85 GHz USING 5.5-m TRANSMITTER HEIGHT
of data points. The value provides a quick estimate of path
loss as a function of TR separation for wireless link design.
Table I shows different values and measured versus
predicted standard deviations (in decibels) calculated from data
collected at the homes. The path loss exponent for the indoor
locations ( ) is clearly larger than for the outdoor
locations ( ), due to additional penetration loss into
the home. Interestingly, there is no statistically significant
difference between path loss exponents for 1.5- and 5.5-m
outdoor receiver heights and for first- and second-level indoor
locations.
IV. HOME PENETRATION LOSS
We define aggregate penetration loss (APL) into a home as
the ratio between the averaged outdoor and indoor local area
powers for a single house with the same transmitter location
[1]. Equation (3) expresses this relationship:
Aggregate Penetration Loss [dB]
P
(3)
P
The summation in the numerator is over the exterior local
area power measurements, each denoted as , while the
summation in the denominator is over the interior local
area power measurements, each denoted as . All powers are
in absolute power scale (not decibels values).
Table II provides APL calculated from the three homes.
The APL for the Woerner home was nearly 8 dB less than
for the Tranter and Rappaport homes, implying that homes
with brick exteriors induce 8 dB more penetration loss than
71
TABLE II
AGGREGATE PENETRATION LOSS (APL) VALUES (IN DECIBELS) FOR
ALL HOMES AT 5.85 GHz USING 5.5-m TRANSMITTER HEIGHT
TABLE III
RULE-OF-THUMB ATTENUATION VALUES
homes with wood siding. Also, the Tranter home exhibited,
on average, 4 dB more APL than the Rappaport home. Both
are brick homes, but the Tranter home has aluminum foil-
backed insulation around the entire exterior; the insulation at
the Rappaport home is paper-backed and less lossy. The linear
average value of 16.3 dB compares favorably to the median
value of 16.1 dB reported by [1].
V. BUILDING SHADOWING LOSS
For precise site planning of wireless links, it is often useful
to isolate the effects of single shadowing elements. Table III
presents rule-of-thumb values for additional path loss induced
by specific shadowing objects. The loss values were calculated
by studying path loss at locations directly in front of and
behind single obstructions, such as trees, houses, or interior
walls. For example, a receiver directly behind a house at head
level (1.5-m height) can expect to experience 24 dB more path
loss than if it were located on the transmitter-side of the home.
Wherever possible, Table III reports the decibels average of
several calculations from the same type of shadowing element
for a more reliable estimate.
VI. TREE SHADOWING LOSS
Deciduous trees, such as beeches or maples, can be potent
shadowers at 5.85 GHz. The wavelength at 5.85 GHz is
5 cmless than the largest dimension of most leaves. Tree
shadowing becomes critical in older neighborhoods, where the
canopy is thick and developed and concentrated at rooftop
level. In many cases it is easier to propagate underneath the
canopy to ground level receivers. This behavior suggests that
deciduous trees appear to be floating masses and typically
introduce a 1013-dB loss in excess of free space path loss.
72
Thick stands of coniferous trees, such as pines, attenuate
a propagating radio wave at 5.85 GHz every bit as much as
their deciduous counterparts. Unless intentionally pruned, pine
trees grow much thicker at the base than leaf-bearing trees. The
measurement results show comparable loss in excess of free
space at all receiver heights with typical values ranging from
11 to 16 dB.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
This letter presents results of path loss and building pen-
etration loss measurements in residential areas and homes.
Detailed measurements were performed in the 5.85-GHz NII
band for three typical middle- to upper-middle-class houses
and for deciduous and coniferous stands of trees. Specific
effects of foliage shadowing, house shadowing, TR separation,
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 2, NO. 3, MARCH 1998
and receiver height were quantified for outdoor path loss
in residential areas. The data may be used when designing
commercial wireless communications links to the home.
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[1] S. Aguirre, L. H. Loew, and L. Yeh, Radio propagation into buildings at
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[2] P. Nobles, D. Ashworth, and F. Halsall, Propagation measurements
in an indoor radio environment at 2, 5, and 17 GHz, in Proc. IEE
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[3] G. D. Durgin, H. Xu, and T. S. Rappaport, Path loss and penetration
loss measurements in and around homes and trees at 5.85 GHz, Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg, June 1997, MPRG TR-97-10, 115 pp.
[4] S. Y. Seidel and T. S. Rappaport, 914 MHz path loss prediction models
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