IoT focused VHF and UHF propagation study and comparisons

As the market for internet of things (IoT) is growing and due to Ofcom's decision to reassign parts of the very high frequency (VHF) spectrum in the UK for IoT use, a propagation study has been conducted using the newly released VHF spectrum and the currently commercially operated ultra-high frequency (UHF) spectrum, in order to compare and contrast the suitability of the VHF spectrum for IoT use. The authors conducted their study in a number of different environments (rural, suburban, urban and dense urban), with measurement equipment deployed in a manner suitable for a portable IoT use case. Results are presented in comparison to other propagation studies available in the literature and widely used propagation models such as the Hata model. Shadowing and noise are also measured and examined. It is found that current propagation models do not provide adequate predictions within the considered use case, but found it is possible to calculate log-distance based models that provide good predictions. Path-loss is found to be constantly lower at VHF than UHF, but radio frequency noise is consistently higher. The newly released spectrum is found to be suitable for IoT deployments in all the examined environments.