Characterization of Indoor Small Cells Propagation

The characterization of the wireless medium in indoor small cell networks is essential to obtain appropriate modeling of the propagation environment. Universal Software Radio Peripherals (USRPs) and simple dipole antennas can emulate LTE-Advanced networks. In this work, we verify WINNER II propagation modeling for the indoor femtocell environment by considering different classrooms of $7.32 \times 7.32$ square meters near a common University Department corridor while measuring the power received in UEs placed in a grid of 49 points (radiated by the small eNodeB in the centre of the classroom of the own cell). These measurements have been carried out either by using the Software Radio Systems LTE that emulates the LTE-Advanced network and its UEs, or by measuring the received power in the UES with a Rohde & Schwarz FSH8 spectrum analyzer. In room 1, by varying the UE position, the highest values of the received power have occurred close to the central BS, and then in the opposite wall, further away from the interferer. Nevertheless, it was verified that the received power does not decrease suddenly because of the effect of the radiation pattern of the BS and UE antennas for large angles of apertures, as well as due to the non-omnidirectional horizontal antenna pattern. In addition, it was demonstrated that there is an effect of “wall loss” proven by the fact that path loss increases between room 2 and room 1 (or between room 3 and 2). If we consider an attenuation for each wall of circa 7-9 dB the behavior of the WINNER II model at 2.625 GHz for the interference coming across different walls is verified.