Rural Macrocell Path Loss Measurements for 5G Fixed Wireless Access at 26 GHz

The demand for a higher data rate is increasing due to the growing number of devices and data usage. To support the increasing demand, fifth-generation (5G) cellular system allocates the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band. 5G wireless networks aim for ubiquitous coverage. To achieve that, rural users can be served by fixed wireless access (FWA) using 5G connections. In this paper, we report an extensive measurement campaign during summertime 2020 in two rural locations in Southern Finland at 26 GHz. During this measurement campaign, a crane was used for measuring path loss at transmit antenna heights of 30 m, 50 m and 70 m. In this study, we evaluate the fit of existing statistical channel models and describe the signal coverage in the rural areas for the given antenna heights. We analyze three path loss models, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) rural macro (RMa) model, Alpha-Beta-Gamma (ABG) model, and Close-In (CI) model. Our results show that the ABG and CI models fit better than the 3GPP RMa model. In this analysis, for 20 m antenna height increase, the mean path loss improves around 4 to 6 dB. This shows that cell site antenna height appears to be an important design parameter for network planning. To ensure sufficient coverage for 26 GHz band FWA services in rural areas, a tall mast can be used to support transmit antennae.