Measurement of Radio Propagation Path Loss over the Sea for Wireless Multimedia

In order to estimate the signal parameters accurately for wireless multimedia services, it is necessary to estimate a system’s propagation characteristics through a medium. Propagation analysis provides a good initial estimate of the signal characteristics. The ability to accurately predict radio propagation behavior for wireless multimedia services is becoming crucial to system design. Since site measurements are costly, propagation models have been developed as a suitable, low cost, and convenient alternative [1]. A number of studies have been conducted to quantitatively predict the characteristics of propagation in inhabited areas on land having many wireless multimedia service users, resulting in a number propagation prediction models being proposed. However, since very few such studies have been conducted for the sea, which has a different physical layer structure from land, the propagation prediction model for free space has been commonly used. Thus, in this study, I measured the propagation path loss of a 1950 MHz band signal over the sea surface, and analyzed the results by comparing them with the path loss data of a propagation prediction model in free space, which is frequently used to predict the propagation path loss over the sea surface.