Spectrum Values in Suburban/Urban Environments above 1.5 GHz

Abstract

Frequency bands higher than 3 GHz will be allocated for 5G telecommunication services. Therefore, investigating the spectrum values at these frequency bands is important for developing an appropriate deployment strategy. In this paper, spectrum values above 1.5 GHz are investigated in suburban and urban environments. In the suburban environment, the relative spectrum values at different positions in a cell are analyzed for frequencies ranging from 500 MHz to 1.5 GHz, 1.5 GHz to 3 GHz, and 3 GHz to 11 GHz. In the urban environment, the maximum achievable capacity of users is calculated for frequencies ranging from 500 MHz to 40 GHz. Numerical results show that spectrum values at lower frequency bands below 5 GHz present higher values at the cell-edge in the suburban environment and in non-line-of-sight (NLoS) situations in the urban environment. However, higher frequency bands have nearly the same impact as low frequency bands at the cell center in suburban environments above 5 GHz but show advantages in outdoor urban environments with line-of-sight (LoS) above 20 GHz. It should be noted that 3.5 GHz shows the highest value in NLoS situations and the indoor domain environment in UMi scenarios, while 28 GHz gives the optimum value at the cell-center and indoor areas with LoS in UMa scenarios. When considering the spectrum value for different frequency bands, the primary consideration should be whether the environment is NLoS or LoS, and the secondary consideration should be whether the environment is indoor or outdoor.