2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

Implementation of a New Propagation Model for

5.8GHz systems in OPNET Simulator

Allan Braga, Jasmine Arajo,Josiane Rodrigues, Allan Costa, Ramz Fraiha, Hermnio Gomes, Simone Fraiha, Bruno
Castro, Gervsio Cavalcante
Computational and Telecommunications Laboratory (LCT)
Federal University of Par (UFPA)- Belm Campus, Augusto Corra Av., no 01, ZIP CODE: 66075-900, Belm-PA, Brazil
allan.braga@itec.ufpa.br, jasmine@ufpa.br, josi@ufpa.br allancosta@ufpa.br, ramz@icen.ufpa.br, hermnio@ufpa.br,
fraiha@ufpa.br, bruno@ufpa.br, gervasio@ufpa.br

Abstract The current suite of wireless OPNET does not have II. METHODOLOGY
an adequate propagation model that features a densely arboreus
environment. Thus this paper proposes the implementation of a A. Propagation model for densely wooded cities
new model of propagation to environments like Amazon Forest in The prediction of propagation losses through the use of
the range of 5.8 GHz using network simulation in OPNET. empirical models are widely used in projects because they are
easy to implement and represent satisfactorily the features of
Index Termspropagation model, wireless network, Opnet,
Amazon forest, simulation. the environment to be studied.
The propagation loss model proposed for amazonian cities
[1] operates in the 5.8 GHz ISM band, which is used in several
I. INTRODUCTION
wireless communication systems broadband. This model was
The technology of wireless transmission is an efficient made using data from measurement campaigns performed in
alternative to send information like whether data, video and 12 cities located in north region of Brazil. These cities have
other services on networks in metropolitan areas. The similar characteristics between them, such as weather,
knowledge of how this information propagates in different architecture and the coexistence of dense vegetation with
locations is an important factor for planning and deployment of buildings (commercial and residential). The features cited are
networks. The best estimation of signal behavior avoids design the main responsible for the attenuation of radio signal. A
failures in wireless networks and ensures good investments in typical example of a densely wooded environment is shown in
deployments.
Fig. 1.
The several types of environments have peculiarities that
contribute to the mitigation of radio signal propagation. Cities
of the Amazon region are formed mostly by middle and low
buildings, residential areas and also have a densely arboreus
environment with diversified vegetation composed with tall
and medium trees of dense foliage [1]. All these factors
contribute to a good or bad reception.
Recently, measurement campaigns were performed in the
range of 5.8 GHz in several amazonian cities of Par State in
Brazil and from those studies was proposed an empirical
propagation model encompassing the various characteristics of
these environments. The network simulator OPNET version
14.5 [2] [3], is widely used by industry and academy, offers
some propagation models already established in the literature,
but these models do not adequately represent the characteristics Figure 1. Urban environment densely wooded
of cities densely wooded. In this paper is discussed the stages
of implementation of the new propagation model, scenario of The relation for the propagation loss [1], in decibels, is
tests and analysis of the results. shown below:

L MP = K 1 log( d ) + K 2 log( f ) + K 0 (1)

Where K1 = 16.5155 and K2 = 15.1878, these parameters

were obtained an empirical way, d is the distance from the

978-88-907018-1-8/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE 935

 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

transmitter to the receiver in meter, f is the transmission complementation antenna gain model of the receiver (stage 6),
frequency in MHz and K0 is the adjustment portion. the result predicts that the result must be allocated in the
The adjustment portion K0 is related to the base station package transmission data attribute (TDA)
height of the receiver, the height of the receiver, height of OPC_TDA_RA_RCVD_ POWER.
obstructions (buildings and vegetation) HOB and wavelength ,
in meter. The equations are shown below:
K o = a bX (2)
( H T + H R )
X = (3)
0 .1H OB
The values of the constants a = 52.5958 and b = 7.6852
were obtained empirically [1].

B. Implementation of Propagation model in OPNET

Simulator
The OPNET (Optimized Network Engineering Tool) is a
development environment for simulation and performance
analysis in communication networks.
The simulator has several node types and links in the radio
module, the architecture is called link Transceiver Pipeline
and whose main function is to identify and evaluate if packets
sent by the transmitter arrived correctly at the receiver. The
terrain modeling module of OPNET provides a choice of some
typical propagation models such as Okumura-Hata, free-space,
among others.
The flowchart used in our implementation is showed in Fig
2. The architecture of the wireless link is modeled in several
stages according Fig. 3, each stage is responsible for the Figure 2. Flowchart for implementation of the new propagation model in
control of a basic parameter such as interference, gain OPNET
antennas, propagation delays, etc. The seventh stage is
responsible for calculating the received power. This stage is
performed the calculation of the propagation loss and this
depends on the simulation environment [3].
To calculate the received power, it is necessary to have the
values of other parameters as transmission power, antenna
gains of the transmitter and receiver and the propagation loss.
This stage is specified by the attribute "power model" of the
radio receiver and is executed separately for each destination
channel. The purpose of this stage is to calculate the received
power in watts of signal of incoming packets at the radio
receiver. The result is stored by the kernel in a transmission
data attribute (TDA) and is represented by the symbolic
constant OPC_TDA_RCVD_POWER.
Thus, the information measured is the received power of the
signal received by the radio receiver channel. Calculating that
value for each relevant signal arriving at each receiver
channel, the received power model then activates the stage to
compute the signal noise ratio (SNR) and then it obtains the
bit error rate (BER).
The received power calculation occurs independently for
each packet that reaches and affects the radio receiver channel,
this is determined by "Closure Model" link and by 'Match
Channel Model' (stages 2 and 3 respectively of the pipeline in
Fig. 3). The model of power received (Received Power
Model) is invoked through the simulation kernel to
immediately perform the calculation using the Figure 3. Radio Pipeline Stages

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 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

In seventh pipeline stage, the received power calculating file (dra_power_new) that contains the new model as seen
depends on other factors such as the transmission power, below in Fig. 04.
antenna gains of transmission and reception and propagation
loss. If not used the terrain modeling module, the propagation
loss equation is given by the propagation loss in free space.
The new model was implemented based on the standard
implementation of seventh stage, where the free space loss
equation was replaced by equations 1-3 as mentioned in
section A. The main codes of our implementation are shown in
the following figure:

Figure 4. Selection of new propagation model for power model attribute.

The new model depends on the average heights of

obstructions Hob [4]. This parameter is modeled on the
receiver node editor according Fig. 5. The default value for
this parameter is set to 8 meters [1].

Figure 5. New attribute for wireless node.

For a simulation test, a scenario (fig. 6) was created with a

fixed base station (Tx) and a mobile receiver (Rx). The
received power was estimated in Opnet until 3 km. The
wireless communications parameters used to simulate were:
transmission power: 0.2W, transmitter and receiver gain: 1,
transmitter height: 50 m, receiver height: 20 m, and frequency:
Through analysis of the standard source code of the stages 5800 MHz (Fig. 7) [1].
of the radio transceiver pipeline and the study of libraries 3 km
"opnet.h" and "dra.h", it was possible to implement the source
code for the new model. Analyzing the code was first declared
the variables and constants needed, obtaining the parameter
that represents the average height of obstructions "Hob" and
the heights of the transmitter and receiver respectively. After
calculating the propagation loss in dB, the conversion was
performed to watts, since it is this unit which is used later to Figure 6. Scenario Simulation
calculate the received power, this will be the result of stage 7
and will be used by the next stages.
In the OPNET wireless module, the 14 stages of the radio
transceiver pipeline are divided between the transmitter node
and the receiver node, stages 0-5 are included within the
transmitter node and the stages 6-13 are included within the
receiver node. In the attribute "power model" of the receiver
node, the default file "dra_power" was replaced by the new
Figure 7. OPNET screen with parameters defined before simulation

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 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

III. RESULTS get better results, especially aspects related to wireless

functionality. This paper presents an implementation of a new
The new OPNET model simulation had similar results propagation model in OPNET network simulator. This allows
showed in [1]. In the graph of Fig. 8, it shows propagation loss modeling urban densely arboreus environment, by using
curve, in dB, for the model implemented [1] in the MATLAB wireless technology in the 5.8 GHz band. Thus, it is possible
tool [5] and for the new proposed one, simulated by OPNET. to perform simulations that represent this kind of environment
105 properly. The model was implemented in the seventh stage of
the radio architecture of OPNET pipeline.
100
Future studies will be conducted for adjusting the model to
Path Loss (dB)

95 be used with other frequency bands such as 800 Mhz and 2.4
opnet simulation
ref.[1] simulation Ghz, another improvement will be the use of the model with
90 mobility systems. Other studies are being conducted to
85
implement other propagation models that have been developed
and validated for the Amazon region, thus allowing better
80 planning of wireless technology systems for densely arboreus
100 500 1.000 1.500 2.000 2.500 3.000
Distance (m) urban environments densely.
Figure 8. Propagation loss (dB) in densely forested cities
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
It was calculated two performance metrics: the standard
deviation and the RMS error between the results of OPNET The authors would like to thank the UFPA, CNPq and National
simulation and the results presented in [1]. The values are Institute of Science and Technology - Wireless Communication
shown in the Table below: (INCT-CSF) for the support provided for the research
TABLE I. STANDARD DEVIATION AND RMS ERROR described in this paper.
Standard Deviation (dB) RMS Error (dB)
REFERENCES
0.27 0.34
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