Field measurements and ray tracing simulations for indoor wireless communications

Abstract

Comparisons of ray tracing simulations and field measurements for wave propagation inside building structures are presented in this paper. For the ray tracing method, many ray tubes are emitted from the transmitting antenna to model the antenna radiation. A ray tracing procedure including all the significant reflections and transmissions on interfaces of different materials and using the cross-sections of the ray tubes to determine the spread factor is applied to find the GO contributions at the position of the receiving antenna. As for the measurements, a vector network analyzer (HP8510C) and two dipole antennas are employed to perform the measurements in an L-shaped hall wall. Those measured results are divided with a reference obtained from a 1 m spacing line-of-sight setup inside a large empty region, and the ratios are compared with the ray tracing solutions. 2-D moment method solutions for a two-room structure and also a stair-shaped wall are compared with those by ray tracing. Good agreements are obtained. This ray tracing program can be used to evaluate the channel characteristics for indoor wireless communications.