Ray-optical modeling of simulcast radio propagation channels in tunnels

Simulcast radio propagation channel characteristics inside tunnels are considered in this paper. Based on the image theory of ray optics, a simulcast radio propagation channel in a rectangular tunnel is exactly formulated. As only the field components of horizontal and vertical polarization are of interest in real implementation, the exact formulation is approximated to facilitate the numerical computation. The calculated simulcast radio propagation channels are comparable fairly to measurements at 900 MHz and 2.0 GHz. The validated ray-optical modeling approach is then applied to simulate simulcast radio propagation channel characteristics at 900 MHz and 2.0 GHz to gain deeper insight and better understanding of this type of channels in tunnels. Results show that large fluctuations occur in the capture regions of the distributed antennas for both 900 MHz and 2.0 GHz. The fluctuations in the simulcast regions are larger at 2.0 GHz than at 900 MHz. The root-mean-squared (rms) delay spread is greater in the simulcast regions than in the capture regions of the distributed antennas. This larger delay spread is mainly due to the delay introduced by the transmission medium. Large values of the rms delay spread can be avoided by a careful design of the distance between the distributed antennas.