A Novel Method for Radio Propagation Simulation Based on Automatic 3D Environment Reconstruction

• Main Authors: D. He, G. Liang, J. Portilla, T. Riesgo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Spolecnost pro radioelektronicke inzenyrstvi 2012-12-01
• Series: Radioengineering
• Subjects: image understanding; radio propagation; wireless communication; 3D reconstruction
• Online Access: http://www.radioeng.cz/fulltexts/2012/12_04_0985_0992.pdf

In this paper, a novel method to simulate radio propagation is presented. The method consists of two steps: automatic 3D scenario reconstruction and propagation modeling. For 3D reconstruction, a machine learning algorithm is adopted and improved to automatically recognize objects in pictures taken from target regions, and 3D models are generated based on the recognized objects. The propagation model employs a ray tracing algorithm to compute signal strength for each point on the constructed 3D map. Our proposition reduces, or even eliminates, infrastructure cost and human efforts during the construction of realistic 3D scenes used in radio propagation modeling. In addition, the results obtained from our propagation model proves to be both accurate and efficient.