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Determination of Diffraction Losses and Coverage Inaccuracies in Some Mountainous Regions of Southern Nigeria

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Abstract

This study was initiated to predict the depth of diffraction losses and coverage inaccuracies in the mountainous terrains of Ondo and Cross River State. Open Source geographical resources analysis support system and other conventional models of diffraction were used in this study. The hypothetical value for the received signal strength (RSS) level was about 65 dBµV/m for both locations. However, this was not the case, as the transmitted radio signals were received through the mechanism of diffraction. This was attributed to the mountain completely blocking the signal line-of-sight path and all the effective ellipsoids of the Fresnel Zones. Furthermore, it was apparent that there were coverage inaccuracies in all the radio cells, as this was envisioned in the maps created with ArcGIS and the output of the web-based link budget calculator. The analysis showed that there was deep under-coverage in Cross River State as the skip distance of the shadow zone cast by the mountains was 28.34 km; as opposed to Ondo with a skip distance of 0.32 km. Also, linear regression models were fitted to predict the received signal strength (RSS) level and diffraction losses, as well as to cater to the deficiency of the existing models of diffraction. The models extended the operational limits of these tools by approximately 200 km when deployed in analogous terrain. From the foregoing, it was recommended that sophisticated technologies like multiple-input multiple-output, beam-forming, etc. and repeater stations should be planted in locations with poor signal qualities to fillip the degraded signals.

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The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

    Etukakpan A. Udoeno, Imoh D. Ekpa & Samuel E. Mopta

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  1. Etukakpan A. Udoeno
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  2. Imoh D. Ekpa
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  3. Samuel E. Mopta
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Contributions

UE: Conceptualization, Methodology, Analysis, Software, Writing—original draft. ED: Methodology, Analysis, Supervision. SM: Methodology, Analysis, and Supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Etukakpan A. Udoeno.

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The author declares that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript. In addition, the ethical issues, including plagiarism, informed consent, misconduct, data fabrication and/or falsification, double publication and/or submission, and redundancies have been ultimately observed by the authors.

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Udoeno, E.A., Ekpa, I.D. & Mopta, S.E. Determination of Diffraction Losses and Coverage Inaccuracies in Some Mountainous Regions of Southern Nigeria. Wireless Pers Commun 132, 1365–1385 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-023-10666-z

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