This paper presents an extensive path loss measurement campaign carried out in rural areas at 3.7 GHz, including line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS conditions. For this purpose, a commercially established fixed wireless access (FWA) network is exploited, operating with time-division long term evolution configuration. Furthermore, various models are examined and validated regarding their ability to predict accurately the path loss. The results reveal that the standard propagation model (SPM) achieves the best performance, thus being an attractive option for planning rural FWA links. The WINNER II and 3GPP/ITU-R models exhibit very good performance, as well. From the statistical assessment, the shadow fading follows the Lognormal distribution with a standard between 4.6 and 5.4 dB. An almost excellent fit is obtained regardless of the diverse propagation conditions in the specific area. Finally, from the model evaluation was concluded that SPM is highly recommended as the best option for a precise network dimensioning and planning.

中文翻译：

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农村地区3.7 GHz的TD-LTE网络的测量和路径损耗模型

本文介绍了在3.7 GHz农村地区进行的广泛的路径损耗测量活动，包括视线（LOS）和非LOS条件。为此，利用了时分长期演进配置来运行的商业建立的固定无线接入（FWA）网络。此外，检查并验证了各种模型的准确预测路径损耗的能力。结果表明，标准传播模型（SPM）达到了最佳性能，因此对于规划农村FWA链路是一个有吸引力的选择。WINNER II和3GPP / ITU-R模型也表现出非常好的性能。根据统计评估，阴影衰落遵循对数正态分布，标准介于4.6和5.4 dB之间。无论在特定区域中的传播条件如何，都可获得极佳的拟合度。最后，根据模型评估得出的结论是，强烈建议将SPM作为精确网络尺寸和规划的最佳选择。