Analysis of propagation effects in LANs and WANs by FDTD and ray tracing techniques

In typical urban areas WLAN, mobile phone and TV signals reflect, refract and diffract from many objects between the transmitter and receiver. Ray tracing and FDTD when combined offer the possibility of accurately modeling propagation over these urban areas to include large scale and small scale features. Studies here highlight some of the features that can be extracted from such analysis to give a more informed knowledge of urban propagation. In particular the features of ground reflection in dry and wet conditions are examined and very significant variations in received signal levels are seen with ground moisture content.