Predição de cobertura radioelétrica usando métodos de equação parabólica em ambiente metroviário urbano na faixa de VHF

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to improve a computational tool of radio coverage prediction to simulate practical cases of a measurement campaign, in order to compare the predictions with real values, evaluating the performance of the algorithm that uses the DMFT-SSPE method. Among the improvements made, it is possible to highlight two structuring topics. The first is the development of simple and efficient methodologies to extract parameters from realistic scenarios, such as radiation pattern of commercial antennas and topographic profiles of any location. The second is the implementation of a technique that considers backscattering effects of the electromagnetic field, which is very important when analyzing the propagation in irregular terrain, making the computational results more accurate. The measurement campaign is part of an engineering study done along a subway track in an urban environment, which measured the radio coverage in the VHF frequency range. Professional equipment was used to collect the database needed for the development of this work. Through a statistical analysis of received power levels and terrain roughness it was possible to evaluate the accuracy of the NAPE and WAPE solutions and direct future research efforts. Last but not least, the creation of a graphical user interface, for displaying the input parameters and output results, concludes the contributions of this study. Keywords: DMFT-SSPE, backscattering, roughness, NAPE, WAPE, VHF, practical cases, coverage prediction.