28 GHz Indoor and Outdoor Propagation Measurements and Analysis at a Regional Airport

In the upcoming 5G communication, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology will play an important role due to its large bandwidth and high data rate. However, mmWave frequencies have higher free-space path loss (FSPL) in line-of-sight (LOS) propagation compared to the currently used sub-6 GHz frequencies. What is more, in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation, the attenuation of mmWave is larger compared to the lower frequencies, which can seriously degrade the performance. It is therefore necessary to investigate mmWave propagation characteristics for different deployment scenarios of interest, to understand coverage and rate performance in such scenarios. In this paper, we focus on 28 GHz wideband mmWave signal propagation characteristics at Johnston Regional Airport (JNX), a local airport near Raleigh, NC. To collect data, we use an NI PXI-based channel sounder at 28 GHz for indoor, outdoor, and indoor-to-outdoor scenarios. Results on LOS propagation, reflection, penetration, signal coverage, and multipath components (MPCs) show a lower indoor FSPL, a richer scattering, and a better coverage compared to outdoor. We also observe high indoor-to-outdoor propagation losses.