Path Loss Analysis for 3G Mobile Networks for Urban and Rural Regions of Mauritius

Abstract - In view of designing any mobile network system, the
fundamental task is to predict the coverage of the proposed
system. A wide variety of approaches have been developed over
the years to predict coverage using what are known as
propagation models. In this paper, we compare the measured path
loss obtained for the sub-urban areas with that for the rural areas
and then with four propagation models, that is, Clutter, Lee,
Okumura-Hata and Extended COST-231. Firstly, for both areas,
the results show that the path loss is not constant at various
locations for a constant distance around the respective base
transceiver station (BTS) showing that the terrain of Mauritius is
irregular. The effects of multipath are more pronounced in the
rural than causing higher probability of signal errors. Secondly,
we find that Lee model is not in agreement with the values
obtained for both regions. Observations show that the Clutter
model gives better agreement for rural regions. However,
observations show that the Okumura-Hata gives better agreement
for all rural, suburban and urban regions, hence, it can be used to
model any region in Mauritius.