Estimation of Pathloss in Femtocells for Indoor Environments

Femtocells Access Points (FAPs) are low power base stations which improve the cellular service within indoor environments. RF propagation modeling is required to analyze the femtocell performance, power issue and the interference impact on the macro network. An indoor propagation channel is considerably more antagonistic than an outdoor channel. This paper deals with the path loss and coverage of the femtocells in indoor environments. The ability to accurately predict radiopropagation behavior for wireless systems is becoming crucial to system design. To reduce the cost of on-site measurements, propagation models have been developed. These models provide a suitable, low-cost and convenient alternative to costly on-site measurements. Lack of a LOS, heavy attenuation, diffraction by objects in the propagation path, and multipath all contribute to losses in an RF channel. RF modeling is required to predict this path loss. The path loss is associated with the design of base stations, as this tells us how much power a transmitter needs to radiate to provide coverage in the intended region. A femtocell increases overall system capacity by reducing the coverage holes and by capacity gain from higher SINR to indoor subscribers. Finally, RF modeling is carried out for indoor environments experienced in a typical femtocell.