In this paper, a hybrid electromagnetic simulation method of two-dimensional FDTD and ray-tracing methods suitable for an airport surface was proposed. The power variation due to ground reflection, refraction and creeping is calculated by two-dimensional FDTD method and ray-tracing method is used to calculate the reflecting and diffracted powers from buildings. The proposed approach was validated by measurement using a 1/50 scale-model of an airport model with a building model in various positions at 5 GHz. The proposed method allowed measured power distributions to correlate with simulated figures to within 4.8 dB and their null positions were also estimated to an error tolerance of within 0.01 m.

Authors had proposed a hybrid electromagnetic field analysis method suitable for an airport surface so far. In this paper, the hybrid method is validated by measurements by using a 1/50 scale-model of an airport considering several layouts of the buildings and sloping ground. The measured power distributions agreed with the analyzed ones within 5 dB errors excepting null points and the null positions of the distribution is also estimated within one wavelength errors.

This paper presents an algorithm to arrange a large number of antenna elements in the limited space of massive MIMO base station antenna without degrading the communication quality under a street-cell line-of-sight environment in mobile communications. The proposed algorithm works by using mathematical optimization in which the objective function is the correlation coefficient between the channel responses of two elements of the base station antenna, according to an algorithm constructed based on the results obtained through basic examinations of the characteristics of the correlation coefficient between channel responses. The channel responses are computed by using the propagation path information obtained by ray-tracing. The arrangements output by the proposed algorithm are mainly evaluated by channel capacity comparison with uniformly spaced arrangements on the vertical plane in single user and multiuser environments. The evaluation results of these arrangements in downlink demonstrate the superiority of the arrangements generated by the proposed algorithm, especially in term of robustness against an increase in the number of users.

This paper proposes a hardware configuration for uplink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmissions in a distributed antenna system (DAS). The demand for high-speed transmission in the uplink has increased recently, because of which standardizations in LTE-advanced and IEEE 802.11ax networks is currently underway. User terminal (UT) scheduling on the downlink MU-MIMO transmission is easy even in unlicensed band such as those in wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. However, the detailed management of the UTs is difficult on the uplink MU-MIMO transmissions because of the decentralized wireless access control. The proposed configuration allows an antenna to be selected from an external device on the access point (AP). All AP antennas are divided into groups, and the received signal in each group is input to the amplitude detector via a directional coupler. Subsequently, the selected antenna is fed by a multiple-to-one switch instead of a matrix switch. To clarify the effectiveness of the proposed configuration, we conduct computer simulations based on the ray-tracing method for propagation channels in an indoor environment.

The method for estimating propagation loss that classifies receiving points into multiple groups by focusing on the number of reflections and diffractions, and applies a separate statistical model to each group was extended from only 2.4 GHz band to both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. The extended statistical model was created from received power measurements. First, an appropriate grouping method was investigated based on the fitting error of statistical model. Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) receiving points were grouped in order of points that a wave reflected one time reaches, points that a wave reflected two times reaches, and points that a wave diffracted one time reaches. Next, the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by comparison with conventional statistical models (one-slope, dual-slope, multi-wall, partitioned) on three office floors that differ from the environment used to create the statistical model. The average NLOS estimation error for the three evaluation environments was 4.9 dB, demonstrating that the proposed method has accuracy equal to or better than that of conventional methods.

With the advances in computer processing that have yielded an enormous increase in performance, numerical analytical approaches based on electromagnetic theory have recently been applied to mobile radio propagation analysis. One such approach is the ray-tracing method based on geometrical optics and the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction. In this paper, ray-tracing techniques that have been proposed in order to improve computational accuracy and speed are surveyed. First, imaging and ray-launching methods are described and their extended methods are surveyed as novel fundamental ray-tracing techniques. Next, various ray-tracing acceleration techniques are surveyed and categorized into three approaches, i.e., deterministic, heuristic, and brute force. Then, hybrid methods are surveyed such as those employing Physical optics, the Effective Roughness model, and the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method that have been proposed in order to improve analysis accuracy.

Recently, mobile networks employing high-speed high-capacity communications have been investigated extensively to satisfy the demand for faster and higher-capacity data communications. In one approach, frequencies between 6 and 100GHz are candidates to utilize relatively wide frequency bandwidths. Accordingly, radio propagation loss in these frequency bands must be characterized. Ray-tracing (RT) is the most common modeling approach to predict propagation loss in site-specific scenarios. The accuracy of RT simulations has been investigated in urban street cell environments based on comparison to measurement results and we observed that the difference between RT simulation and measurement results tends to increase as the frequency increases. In this paper, we focus on the shape of building corners at an intersection because it is this shape that is a dominant contributing factor in the region away from the intersection. In order to correct the error in the conventional RT method, we propose an alternative model that considers the detailed shape of the building corner and surface roughness. The performance of the RT simulation using the proposed method is then investigated based on comparison of two different sets of measurement results. Finally, we extract the optimal size and roughness for the proposed modeling method. Consequently, we confirm that using the proposed method with optimized parameters significantly enhances the accuracy compared to the conventional method.

Recently, computer speed and memory capacity have been advanced. Therefore, applicable space size or equivalently the frequency in the FDTD method has been increased similar as the ray-tracing method for radio wave propagation. The ray-tracing method can obtain easily important parameters such as path loss, delay profile and angular profile. On the other hand, the FDTD method seems difficult to obtain an angular profile. We can overcome this problem by applying the DOA estimation method to the FDTD method. In this paper, we show that the FDTD method can be used as a counterpart of the ray-tracing method to analyze radio wave propagation of large space by using DOA estimation method such as MUSIC method.

The diffraction by a composite wedge composed of a perfect conductor and a lossy dielectric is investigated using the hidden rays of diffraction (HRD) method. The usual principle of geometrical optics is employed to trace not only ordinary rays incident on the lit boundary but also hidden rays incident on the shadow boundary. The modified propagation constants are adopted to represent the non-uniform plane wave transmission through the lossy dielectric. The HRD diffraction coefficients are constructed routinely by the sum of the cotangent functions, which have one-to-one correspondence with both ordinary and hidden rays. The angular period of the cotangent functions is adjusted to satisfy the edge condition at the tip of the composite wedge. The accuracy of the HRD diffraction coefficients in the physical region is checked by showing how closely the diffraction coefficients in the complementary region satisfy the null-field condition.

This paper is concerned with the estimation of radio communication distance when both the transmitter and receiver are arbitrarily distributed on a random rough surface such as desert, terrain, sea surface and so on. First, we simulate electromagnetic wave propagation along the rough surface by using the discrete ray tracing method (DRTM) proposed by authors recently. Second, we determine three parameters by conjugate gradient method (CGM) combined with the method of least-squares. Finally, we derive an analytical expression which can estimate the maximum communication distance when the input power of a transmitter and the minimum detectable electric intensity of a receiver are specified. Random rough surfaces are assumed to be Gaussian, pn-th order power law or exponential distributions.

This paper proposes new techniques to simulate a MIMO propagation channel using the ray-tracing method for the purpose of decreasing the computational complexity. These techniques simulate a MIMO propagation channel by substituting the propagation path between a particular combination of transmitter and receiver antennas for all combinations of transmitter and receiver antennas. The estimation accuracy calculated using the proposed techniques is evaluated based on comparison to the results calculated using imaging algorithms. The results show that the proposed techniques simulate a MIMO propagation channel with low computational complexity, and a high level of estimation accuracy is achieved using the proposed Vector-Rotation Approximation technique compared to that for the imaging algorithm.

This paper describes a proposed propagation estimation method and TCP/IP-based evaluations for mobile communications employing a stratospheric platform. To estimate a wireless channel, a realistic and detailed description of its physical environment must be accurately defined. Therefore, a building distribution model characterizing the physical environment in areas in Japan is presented. The analyses of the propagation estimation method are based on the "ray-tracing" model. The results from the proposed method are derived depending on elevation and azimuth angles. In order to validate our results, comparisons between the proposed method and our previous measurement are made for a typical semi-urban area in Japan. The comparisons show close agreement between the estimation results and the measurement results. Finally and interestingly, we present communication performance evaluations based on TCP/IP protocol by using the results achieved from our channel estimation with semi-analytical and simulation approach.

In this study we have employed an effective technique for dosimetric analyses of base station antennas in an underground environment. The technique combines a ray-tracing method and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to calculate the specific absorption rate (SAR) in the human body. The ray-tracing method was applied to evaluate the incident fields in relation to the exposed subject in a three-dimensional space, while the FDTD method was used to calculate the detailed SAR distributions in the human body. A scenario under an underground passage with the installation of a top-loaded monopole antenna was analyzed to investigate the relationship between the actual antenna exposure and a plane-wave exposure. The results show that the plane-wave exposure overestimated the whole-body average SAR in most cases, although this was not always true for peak SAR. The finding implies not only the usefulness of the present uniform-exposure-based reference level for the whole-body average SAR evaluation but also the necessity of modeling actual underground environment for high-precision local peak SAR evaluation.

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers have been used for improving the EM environment of an electronic toll collection (ETC) system on an express highway or a wireless local area network (LAN) system in an indoor environment. In this paper, an efficient multi-ray propagation model, which uses 3D geometry and image techniques to trace multiple signal rays from transmitter to receiver, is employed to analyze the EM environment of a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) system on an express highway. The validity of the model employed is discussed by the comparison with the results obtained by an experiment on the highways. The analysis shows that the possible undesired communications between onboard equipment that acts as a receiver and DSRC beacon which transmits the radio signals, is improved by increasing the EM wave-absorption capability of the sidewalls and the pavement of the highway. Another advantage of the employed model is that it is effective for investigating the location of wave absorbers to be set up on the highway, and it takes only a fraction of a minute for computation.

This paper investigates the 10 m semi anechoic chamber using a new type hybrid EM wave absorber consisted of the grid-ferrite and the open-top hollow pyramidal EM wave absorber. We designed a new type hybrid EM wave absorber, which length could be slightly realized 65 cm. The 10 m semi anechoic chamber was constructed in the size of L21.5 mW13.5 mH8.9 m as the result of the ray-tracing simulation using this absorber. Then, the site attenuation in the constructed anechoic chamber was measured by using the broadband calculable dipole antennas. As the result, the maximum deviations between the measured site attenuation and theoretical calculated one were obtained within 3.6 dB in the frequency range of 30 MHz to 300 MHz. It was confirmed the validity of a new type hybrid EM wave absorber. Moreover, it was confirmed that the measured results agree with the ray-tracing simulation results, in which the differences are about 1.5 dB.

The site attenuation is an important parameter to evaluate an anechoic chamber. The ray-tracing method has been applied to analyze it. However, the lowest applicable frequency has not been cleared. In this paper, the FDTD method has been applied to analyze the site attenuation of a compact anechoic chamber from 30 MHz to 250 MHz, and this has been compared with the calculated one by the ray-tracing method to evaluate the lowest frequency where the ray-tracing method could be applied. The compact anechoic chamber, where the absorbers are placed on the all walls, has been used for the calculation. For FDTD analysis, the dipole antenna and the absorber have been modeled by using the large cell, whose size is larger than the diameter of the antenna element. For verification, the site attenuation of a compact anechoic chamber has been measured and compared with the calculated values by the FDTD method and the ray-tracing method. As the results, the calculated values by the ray-tracing method have larger deviation than the ones by the FDTD method when the frequency is less than 180 MHz.

The abstract ray-tracing problem asks, for a given scene consisting of a light source, a light receiver and finitely many obstacles in a space, and a given positive integer ε > 0, whether a ray going out from the light source could reach the light receiver with intensity at least ε. The problem is known to be PSPACE-hard, and it is very unlikely that there exists an efficient algorithm to solve the problem without adding any restriction. In this paper, we show that the problem can be solved in polynomial time under some weak practical restrictions.

This letter presents a method to simulate a phase-included UWB channel impulse responses for a given indoor channel. In this method we decompose a UWB pulse into a finite number of spectral components. This enables the received signal to be determined by the sum of the convolutions between each spectral component and a corresponding frequency-dependent UWB channel impulse response. The ray-tracing algorithm is applied to calculate the amplitude and the phase of each frequency-dependent channel impulse response. Based on the calculated results, we finally show the simulation of the UWB channel impulse response.

Propagation modeling and advanced channel characterization techniques represent integral parts of significant impact in advancing progress in enabling next generation wireless communication technology and realizing its much anticipated broader application and economic benefits. In this paper we describe advances in developing computationally efficient ray-tracing channel modeling procedures, and also describe recent results in characterizing challenging propagation environments including transmission through windows and propagation through walls of complex structures. The impact of these realistic propagation environments as well as the antenna mutual coupling effects on the estimation of channel capacity in a MIMO-based communication system is also evaluated. Significant difference between realistic and statistical channel models are identified and quantified for the special cases of the channels modeled in this study.

The authors have performed a simple computer simulation for a topography that models change in propagation characteristics due to change in traffic volume. The results of this simulation revealed that path loss for a traffic volume of about 2000 vehicles every 30 minutes in a typical urban environment exhibits a Rayleigh distribution. This result agrees well with that of actual measurements demonstrating that even a simple simulation can be a useful tool in system design.