Investigation of the Impact of Height and Bandwidth on Path Loss Exponent of 5G FR1 Wireless Networks at 800, 3500, and 5900 MHz

5G communication systems provide an end-to-end wireless connection to billions of users and devices across the globe. The quality of signals received during radio communication is notably influenced by the behavior of the radio propagation channel. A major parameter used in characterizing this channel is the Path Loss Exponent (PLE). Several works that have estimated and analyzed the PLE mostly considered the effect of distance and carrier frequency. However, the effect of base station antenna height and channel bandwidth on the PLE for 5G networks have not been adequately considered. To address this, the impact of antenna height of base station and channel bandwidth on the PLE within the 5G Frequency Range 1 (FR1) frequencies was investigated in this study, specifically at 800, 3500, and 5900 MHz. The licensed EDX Signal Pro software® with Cirrus high resolution global terrain and clutter data base was utilized to model, simulate and analyze the PLE for Kano City, Nigeria. Results showed that for the tested frequencies, an increase in either base station height or channel bandwidth leads to a significant reduction in the PLE. This study can be utilized by network planning engineers and the wireless research community to further improve network implementation and optimization toward understanding the behavior of signal propagation in 5G networks and beyond.