An Antenna Specific Site Modeling Tool for Interactive Computation of Coverage Regions for Indoor Wireless Communication

A goal of indoor wireless communication is to strategically place RF base stations to obtain optimum signal coverage at the lowest cost and power. Traditionally, transceiver locations have been selected by human experts who rely on experience and heuristics to obtain a near-optimum placement. Current methods depend on involved on-site communication measurements and crude statistical modeling of the obtained data which is time consuming and prohibitive in cost. Given the inherent variability of the indoor environment, such a method often yields poor efficiency. As an example, it is possible that more power than required or extra number of transceivers were used. This thesis describes an interactive software system that can be used to aid transceiver placement. The tool is easy to use and is targeted at users who are not experts in wireless communication system design. Once the transceiver locations are selected by the user within a graphical floor plan, the system uses simple path-loss models to predict coverage regions for each transceiver. The coverage regions are highlighted to indicate expected coverage. Earlier work assumed isotropic transceivers and had limited directional transmitter support. This thesis describes how the tool has been enhanced to support a wide range of 3D antenna patterns as encountered in practical situations. The tool has also been expanded to accommodate more partition types and to report area of coverage. The resulting system is expected to be very useful in the practical deployment of indoor wireless systems.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Bhat, Nitin

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Abbott, A. Lynn

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Woerner, Brain D.
• Rappaport, Theodore S.

• Site specific prediction
• Directional Antennas
• Wireless Communication
• RF Propagation

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-022299-134645

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/31317