Analytical formulae for path loss prediction in urban street grid microcellular environments

Rapid growth in the demand of wireless communications makes the use of microcells essential. Ray tracing models have shown good path loss prediction accuracy in microcellular environments. However, these techniques have great computational and memory requirements. The purpose of this paper is to derive analytical propagation path loss formulae for microcellular communications in urban street grid environments. The formulae are derived based on the geometrical optics and diffraction theory and they take into account multiple reflections along street walls and diffractions around street corners with ground reflections neglected; i.e., a two-dimensional approach. Comparisons between our theoretical results and published measurements in Tokyo and New York Cities show good agreement.