Cell Coverage Area and Link Budget Calculations in LTE System

Abstract

The network planning is a significant step in establishment of wireless communication system. For a wireless system the primary setup takes a lot of time for process and also very expensive. Because of this reason it uses a mathematical model before the processing of the system to avoid unknown expenses. The mathematical model calculation mainly includes path loss, link budgets etc. Radio propagation is site specific and it varies substantially depending on geography, frequency at which system will operate mobile terminal speed, interface sources and other dynamic factors. To estimate the signal coverage and to achieve a high data rates, it is very important to illustrate the radio channel through important parameters and with the help of a mathematical model. In this paper we have evaluated the cell coverage area for Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology at 1800 MHz (FDD-LTE) theoretically for different transmitting antenna heights and at different transmitting power levels. This coverage area is then compared with the practical measured coverage area i.e. practical measured path loss. The signal coverage starts within the cell, by predicting the affecting parameters on the signal power level in the uplink and downlink at the practical cases. In this paper the concentration is completely on pre-process of network planning i.e. link budgeting of LTE cellular system. This investigation can also lead the radio planner to a thorough understanding of radio wave propagation for designing mobile communication system.