Mapping RF Propagation for Wireless Communications

Overview 

Do you need to study and understand the communication link between a base-station and a mobile phone, or the ability of your transmitter to cover a certain geographic area? Many different parameters affect the quality of the link between a transmitter and a receiver, such as the position, the operating frequency, the type of antenna used, and the weather.

In this presentation, you will learn how MATLAB and Antenna Toolbox can help you define a scenario of multiple transmitters and receivers and visualize them on a 3D terrain map. You can immediately perform line-of-sight analysis over terrain, visualize the 3D antenna radiation pattern on the map, and generate coverage, communication link, and SINR visualizations. These visualizations can include RF propagation effects using the Longley-Rice propagation model.

With live MATLAB examples, we will show you some of the available analyses e.g., determine coverage maps, communication links, visual line-of-sight all taking terrain obstructions into account. We will consider different type of antennas and antenna arrays, and include adaptive beamforming algorithms for example to emulate a 5G scenario.

Highlights

• Map coverage visualization on a 3D terrain map of transmitter-receiver communication links
• Include the effects of antennas, antenna arrays, and beamforming on communication links 
• Display the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio for transmitter sites
• Longley-rice RF propagation model
• Visualize the effects of location, weather, operating frequency, receiver sensitivity

About the Presenter

Dr. Giorgia Zucchelli is the product marketing manager for RF and mixed-signal at MathWorks. Before joining MathWorks in 2009 as an application engineer focusing on signal processing and communications systems with specialization in analog simulation, Giorgia worked for two years at NXP Semiconductors on mixed-signal verification methodologies. Before then, she worked for Philips Research, where she contributed to the development of system-level models for innovative telecommunication systems. Giorgia has a master’s degree in electronic engineering and a doctorate in electronic engineering for telecommunications from the University of Bologna. Her thesis dealt with modeling high-frequency RF devices.