Measurement and modeling of propagation losses in brick and concrete walls for the 900-MHz band

The prediction of wall losses is a fundamental aspect in the planning of cellular systems. The broad variety of building materials and construction codes makes accurate attenuation prediction very difficult without the support of specific construction data or measurements. In this paper, the attenuation and equivalent electric parameters [epsilon] and [sigma] of brick and doubly reinforced concrete walls are estimated for the 900-MHz band by fitting simple ray tracing models to empirical transmission data. The measurement setup is described, and extensive experimental results justifying the quasioptical modeling are presented. Index Terms--Materials parameters, measurements, modeling and simulation, RF propagation, RF system engineering.