A new approach to 3-D ray tracing for propagation prediction in cities

Author

Liang, George ; Bertoni, Henry L.

Author_Institution

Center for Adv. Technol. in Telecommun., Polytech.. Univ., Brooklyn, NY, USA

Volume

46

Issue

6

fYear

1998

fDate

6/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

853

Lastpage

863

Abstract

A vertical-plane-launch (VPL) technique for approximating a full three dimensional (3-D) site-specific ray trace to predict propagation effects in cities for frequencies in the 300 MHz-3-GHz band is described and its predictions are compared with measurements for Rosslyn, VA. The VPL technique employs the standard shoot and bounce method in the horizontal plane while using a deterministic approach to find the vertical displacement of the unfolded ray paths. This approximation is valid since building walls are almost always vertical. The VPL method shows significant improvement compared with the slant-plane/vertical-plane (SP/VP) method for rooftop antennas. For a base station located at street level, the VPL method gives better predictions than the two-dimensional (2-D) method in locations where propagation over buildings is significant

Keywords

UHF radio propagation; cellular radio; ray tracing; 3-D ray tracing; Rosslyn; United States; VA; VPL technique; base station; building walls; cities; deterministic approach; horizontal plane; propagation prediction; rooftop antennas; shoot and bounce method; unfolded ray paths; vertical displacement; vertical-plane-launch technique; Antennas and propagation; Cities and towns; Diffraction; Frequency; Optical propagation; Personal communication networks; Predictive models; Ray tracing; Reflection; Two dimensional displays;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-926X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/8.686774

Filename

686774