DIRECT: A Deterministic Radio Coverage Tool

Abstract

This work presents a deterministic tool, DIRECT (Deterministic Radio Electric Coverage Tool), for computing electromagnetic field levels in electrically large scenarios. It is based on the evaluation of the induced currents by means of the MECA (Modified Equivalent-Current Approximation) method. In addition, acceleration techniques, such as domain decomposition and range limitation, are included to decrease the computational time. The software undertakes the whole process of calculating coverage - from the selection of the geometry (rural and urban environments), its material properties (PEC, dielectric, or lossy materials), the placement of base stations and antennas with their corresponding customized radiation patterns and power specifications, the choice of contributions to the total fields (direct illumination, reflections, and diffraction) - to a complete presentation of the results in three-dimensional realistic maps. These tasks are easily carried out due to a. friendly graphical interface, where the projects can be interrupted and saved to continue later, after loading their parameters from files. Two application examples are shown to illustrate the potential of the software.