Received power prediction of a terrestrial TV broadcasting transmitter using ordinary kriging interpolation

Abstract

Radio Environment Mapping (REM) provides information useful for many different applications in the telecommunications field. In this paper, the authors evaluate the ability of ordinary kriging (OK) to produce a REM without the large number of samples typically required. The kriging model is generated using different sizes of received power input sample sets over a 5 km radius surrounding a transmitter. The input sample selection is discussed as well as the implementation of the OK model in MATLAB. The authors compare contour maps of the received power predicted by the kriging model to the SPLAT generated map and the kriging model is validated through cross-validation and by inspecting the semi-variogram. The authors find that the OK model produces a Root-Mean-Squared Error (RMSE) of less than 6 dBm for sample set sizes larger than 500 samples as well as a very small ratio between the RMSE and the variation in the input data