Drive Tests-based Evaluation of Macroscopic Pathloss Models for Mobile Networks

Mobile operators have already started their 5G network deployment and next generation user terminals commercial release is planned for the upcoming months. Knowing the future network system performance and capabilities seem to be key in order to have proper planning strategies. In this paper we present some field test trials for the latest release of 4G, which have lots of similarities with the forthcoming mobile broadband standard. Results for urban drive tests are presented too. We also bring pathloss simulation based on modern channel models that matches the results obtained in the real scenarios. Error is measured to have insights about the utility and accuracy of the pathloss models when comparison with specific scenarios is made. Some final brainstorming for future work with 5G network and concluding remarks are proposed.