Evaluation and Analysis of Global System for Mobile (GSM) Signal Loss in High-Density Population

Abstract

This research investigated the effect of high-density areas on Global Systems for Mobile Communication signal penetration. MTN, Airtel, 9mobile, and Globacom were used. The study areas were mile 1 market and mile 3 markets, the two most congested markets in Port Harcourt. GSM 900 and GSM 1800 were the operating frequencies considered. Measurements conducted were taken in the morning when there was no congestion in the two markets and in the evening when the markets were congested. Radiofrequency signals detector (RFSD), a mobile application was used to conduct measurements in the study areas. Data was obtained, analyzed, and evaluated and path loss was computed. The result showed that a high human population had much effect on signal penetration, 38.2db being the highest penetration loss. A comparison of the computed path loss with cost 231 and the ITU pedestrian model showed that the ITU model had very close values with the computed path loss based on the measured data from the study areas. The mean path loss for mile 1 market at 900MHz was found to be 119.0 dB, and 121.3 dB for 1800 MHz. For mile 3 market, the mean path loss for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz were 121.9dB and 123.5dB respectively The performance of the network providers revealed that MTN was the best with a mean RSS of -1dBm and -52.4dBm for mile 1 and mile 3, followed by 9moblie with mean RSS of -51dBm and -62.8dBm Globacom was third with mean RSS of -58.4dBm and -61dBm for Mile 1 and Mile 3, Airtel was fourth with mean RSS of -66dBm and -70.04dBm for mile 1 and mile 3 markets respectively.