The advent of 5G networks and the pervasiveness of spectrum-dependent systems complicate the electromagnetic operational environment and make reliable network planning essential to command and control. Propagation analysis has historically sacrificed either speed or accuracy, but contemporary environments and equipment variety require precision and real-time flexibility to guarantee dependable, networking solutions.
This presentation serves as a general introduction to the vision of the next-generation propagation tool and how it will overcome the challenges of modern, three-dimensional (3-D), radio frequency network planning. The solutions include using 3-D ray tracing and leveraging the parallel processing power of graphics processing units to provide a real-time, highly-accurate, fully 3-D propagation solution. The environment model is derived from geographic information system and geometry data. This representation employs varying levels of detail, allowing the user to model greater fidelity in urban areas while applying less fidelity to open space and rural areas and optimize the simulation to the highest fidelity data available. The model applies to any scale propagation problem, from interior office networks with hundreds of nodes to communication links between satellites and base stations, and accommodates any frequency, including millimeter-wave bands and beyond.