Spectrum Monitoring System Deployment Site Analysis Using Realistic Radiation Patterns

Spectrum monitoring systems are becoming increasingly necessary for facilitating spectrum sharing opportunities in congested frequency bands. Shared spectrum approaches allow for more commercial use of limited frequency allocations while protecting legacy government users from interference within the United States. Spectrum monitoring systems allow stakeholders to gain insight into how the spectrum is used over time. The location of these systems, ideally, will enable the measurement of aggregate emissions from all users within the dynamic range of the measurement sensor. This paper describes a computational modeling methodology to predict aggregated cellular power at prospective sensor locations. The power received from each cellular transmitter is modeled with the Irregular Terrain Model (ITM) propagation model, including omnidirectional or directional antenna patterns as appropriate. The results may then be leveraged to generate design requirements and field spectrum monitoring systems.