Development of a web-based software tool for outdoor path loss modeling in 5g systems

The increase in the required bandwidth with the global growth of existing wireless communication systems is one of the important reasons for the research and industry communities to consider 5G and millimeter-wave frequencies. The wide range of accessible and unlicensed spectrums, the use of small antennas in RF applications with increasing frequency, the low losses due to the interference effects compared to the currently used frequency bands are the advantages of millimeter-wave frequencies for 5G applications. However, with this preference, it is necessary to organize existing channel models or to create new ones. The change in wave behavior at millimeter-wave frequencies is the main reason for this requirement. The effect of increasing frequency on propagation loss and narrow coverage compared to low frequencies are the main problems. Propagation modeling studies are generally based on indoor and outdoor propagation loss calculations. Within the scope of this thesis, a web-based software tool has been developed to calculate propagation loss for outdoor systems. Terrain profile and environmental information related to the region were obtained through applications that provide web-based mapping services and digital elevation data. The propagation loss calculations were made by using ray-tracing techniques on the obtained data. Two different ray tracing techniques have been studied based on urban and rural land profile. Quasi-3D ray tracing techniques were applied on the data received by OpenStreetMap for urban microcellular environments. Rural terrain profiles were obtained with digital elevation data and loss calculations were made using the shooting and bouncing ray method. Urban area data were compared with measurement values in the literature, whereas rural area data were compared with WinProp results. The quasi3D ray tracing technique has been turned into an ASP.NET web application on Microsoft Visual Studio via the MATLAB SDK Compiler.