I-Corps: Efficient Terrain-Based Measurement Gathering for Path Loss Inference

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To address multi-fold increases in cellular network demand, carrier cell range sizes have shifted downwards to maximize network capacity. In doing so, accurate and fine-grained estimation of coverage becomes a critical issue for spatial reuse, intercell interference, and smooth handoffs between cells. Historically, in-field experimentation has been used by telecommunication companies to estimate wireless propagation characteristics of a given region, which is costly due to the manpower and equipment resources required. The emerging popularity of smartphones offers a far cheaper alternative, recording in-field network observations directly from the cellular users via crowdsourcing. However, crowdsourcing often provides incomplete measurement coverage to accurately infer path loss. Further complicating the issue, different sub-regions can require differing amounts of measurements to achieve the same path loss characterization accuracy. This I-Corps team has developed a system that uses geographical feature information (e.g., building heights, foliage, free space) to predict measurement collection requirements over a region using a statistical learning framework, allowing network operators to optimize their measurement collection strategy.The proposed work will lower the financial barrier to and increase the assurance of coverage in rolling out new cellular generations and/or frequency bands over a given region of users. The project will also allow increased confidence in leveraging crowd-sourced information from users as opposed to relying on costly drive testing, thereby saving manpower and allowing a quicker feedback loop in terms of network performance. The project will allow the team members to develop commercial acumen that could increase the quality and fidelity of their research as well as train other students at all levels that have intellectual capital that could be commercially viable. By participating in the I-Corps curriculum, this team intends to clearly identify the exact amount current carriers spend, and the amount customers would be willing to pay for the proposed service.