Computationally efficient modeling of propagation effects for automated wireless engineering

This paper describes the building blocks for a propagation model that is currently used for automated wireless engineering. These building blocks can be used to construct propagation models for cellular, PCS, MMDS/LMDS, and wireless fixed access. The model starts with a basic analytic design to handle the behavior of the path loss as a function of distance. Then other terms are added to account for other effects, such as terrain obstructions, sloping terrain, road orientation, rain attenuation, and the presence of water bodies along the propagation path. The model has been validated in many urban, suburban and rural markets throughout the US. The model achieves an accuracy of 6-8 dB standard deviation in several urban markets with terrain and morphology data at 30 m resolution. Using a mid-range off-the-shelf PC, the model achieves predictions for a 25 × 25 km region in less than 20 seconds at this resolution.