New tube-based shooting and bouncing ray tracing method

In this paper, a new shooting and bouncing (SBR) ray-tracing method is presented for wave propagation simulating, based on the tube shooting. Two concepts of center-ray tube and lateral-ray tube are defined and then compared in different aspects of accuracy and computational time wherein the use of lateral-ray tube revealed as important step forward in ray tracing accuracy but more time consuming. An acceleration technique developed based on ray tubes coherency that deals with ray-sharing characteristic of tube. New concept of two-ray tube tracing (TRTT) benefiting four-ray tube configuration is presented. A computational procedure developed to implement TRTT technique for simulation of wave propagating through large complex three-dimensional (3D) objects. To verify accuracy of presented TRTT technique and relevant computational procedure, a simple 4 buildings scenario analyzed using CST MICROWAVE STUDIO^®. Moreover, field measurement values and TRTT simulation results compared in an urban environment on 910 MHz. The good agreement between simulation results and the measurements validates presented technique. Consequently, proposed technique provides an efficient ray tracing method while retains same accuracy as for four-ray tube launching. Moreover, this method can be used for evaluation of wireless channel characteristics by providing enough 3D information of tube configuration for 3D analysis of environments.