Propagation simulation for outdoor wireless communications in urban areas

Abstract

A propagation simulation of wireless communication for urban environments is aimed. Firstly, propagation path loss from a base station to a receiver point was calculated according to Walfisch-Ikegami model which is an empirical model based on the measurement data. Building database around the base station was used to calculate the path losses. Outdoor regions between buildings were divided into grid points and path losses are calculated as if there is a receiver at a given grid point. For a given radiated power from the base station, received power was obtained at each grid point. Visual output of the received power distribution was plotted. Results were compared with the Walfisch-Ikegami implementation of a commercial software called Winprop. Almost identical power distribution was observed. Secondly, ray tracing model of Winprop was used for the same area. Assuming ray tracing model gives more accurate results, situations for which Walfisch-Ikegami model better approaches to ray tracing model were found. Coherence bandwidth were obtained by using the impulse response produced by the ray tracing model.