Propagation modeling — a CSP approach

Abstract

Radio wave propagation models are extremely important in radio network planning as well as in interference planning, for the frequency range between 500 MHz and 5 GHz. This is because of the fact that an accurate propagation model enables efficient prediction of the coverage area of a cell and efficient resource reallocation in the form of better coverage prediction at the desired area. A certain model is usually applicable to limited distances and other parameter values. The simplest approach to the prediction of the field strength in urban scenarios is empirical models. The empirical models are very fast but they are not very accurate. Each of these models can also be viewed as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). In general, each propagation model involves a large number of variables such as frequency, base station antenna height, mobile station antenna height, distance etc. Each variable has a well-defined domain for a particular mobile environment under consideration and the constraint can be defined on the term representing the path loss. Therefore, the constraint satisfaction problem can be well utilized to model the propagation phenomenon. In the present work, the objective is to analyze the propagation modeling using CSP algorithms. There are five CSP algorithms such as backtracking, backjumping, conflicted directed backjumping, backmarking, forward checking and their hybrids. In our work backtracking CSP algorithm are used to compute the path loss against various parameters for Okumura-Hata and Walfisch-Ikegami models and analyze their behaviour at higher frequency ranges.