Improvement of Indoor RF Coverage Assessment in 3G/4G Mobile Networks

Most of mobile communications are done inside buildings and telecom operators pay close attention on indoor Radio Frequency (RF) coverage in order to provide suitable Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Due to buildings openings, huge signal attenuation can be observed depending on the height at which the Mobile Equipment (ME) is located from the ground. Unfortunately, RF engineers pay less attention to this height selection, and this can greatly impact the reliability of results. In addition, Special Drive Test Route (SDTR) provides good results for indoor RF coverage assessment as compared to random methods, but the impact of itineraries direction was not covered. Thus, the impacts of mobile equipment height position from ground and SDTR itineraries direction have been deeply studied. As a result, worst signal power is always observed when the ME is located at ground level and we recommend this position as reference while performing indoor RF coverage assessment. Also, by carefully choosing itinerary path direction, results reliability can be improved by 67.5%.