Fast Edge-Diffraction-Based Radio Wave Propagation Model for Graphics Hardware

Fast radio wave propagation predictions are of tremendous interest, e.g., for planning and optimisation of cellular radio networks. We propose the use of ordinary graphics cards and specialized algorithms to achieve extremely fast predictions. We present a ray-optical approach for wave diffraction at building edges into street canyons, exploiting the programming model of graphics cards. More than twenty predictions per second are achieved in a 7 km² urban area with a mean squared error of less than 7 dB when compared with measurements.