The combination of satellite direct reception and terrestrial 5G infrastructure is essential
to guarantee coverage in satellite based-Internet of Things, mainly in smart cities where buildings
can cause high power losses. In this paper, we propose an accurate and fast graphical method for
predicting the satellite coverage in urban areas and SatCom on-the-move scenarios. The aim is to
provide information that could be useful in the IoT network planning process, e.g., in the decision of
how many terrestrial repeaters are really needed and where they should be placed. Experiments show
that the shadowed areas predicted by the method correspond almost perfectly with experimental
data measured from an Eutelsat satellite in the urban area of Barcelona.Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio de España TSI-020301-2009-3