Large-Scale Measurement-Driven characterization of outdoor ambient RF power in Dubai for Battery-Free IoT and RF Energy-Harvesting planning

This paper presents a measurement-driven characterization of the outdoor ambient RF environment in Dubai to support deployment planning for battery-free IoT systems and RF energy harvesting. These findings provide a quantitative basis for band selection, placement prioritization, and feasibility assessment, and can establish more realistic simulation environments. A large-scale drive-test survey was conducted using a Keysight N9914C FieldFox spectrum analyzer and a broadband omnidirectional antenna, logging GPS-tagged received power (dBm) at 50–60 m intervals over almost 200 km of routes. Eleven bands spanning sub-1 GHz broadcast and cellular frequencies through 5 GHz Wi-Fi were measured. The results show that ambient RF availability is dominated by sub-1 GHz frequency windows, with the 791–862 MHz measurement window exhibiting the strongest received power results, reaching a maximum of −5.57 dBm and exhibiting power above −20 dBm for 4.30% of samples, and above −30 dBm for 38.36%. In contrast, higher-frequency bands show negligible exceedance at these levels, indicating limited availability of high-input-energy events. Spatial route maps reveal road-level variability with localized high-power segments along the sampled routes. The findings indicate that battery-free sensing is most feasible under a harvest-store-operate paradigm and establish a quantitative framework for band prioritization, measurement-informed placement, and realistic energy-availability assessment.