Comparison of statistical and deterministic indoor propagation prediction techniques with field measurements

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of two indoor propagation prediction models with respect to field measurements carried out by a major wireless operator deploying a PCS-1900 (1.9 GHz) system in urban and suburban environments, including indoor shopping malls. The first method is a statistical one whose advantages are speed and simplicity, while the second is a purely ray-tracing approach whose advantage is precision. Comparisons are made between the measurements in one shopping mall and each of the theoretical models. It is observed that the statistical technique yields a useful first approximation that nonetheless diverges substantially from reality while ray-tracing can be quite precise if the environmental parameters are properly defined