Cellular propagation studies with application to antenna design

The radiation of directive antennas in a confined cellular environment is investigated. The objective is the development and validation of an accurate and computationally efficient 3D ray tracing model, based on an extended uniform geometrical theory of diffraction, for the simulation and characterization of the RF propagation channel. Improvements over previous propagation studies are incorporated, namely: (1) base and mobile station antenna patterns in field calculations; (2) diffuse reflection and diffraction effects via the definition of the effective reflection and diffraction coefficients, that take into account the surface irregularities and the electrical properties of the building materials; and (3) selective ray tracing. The latter is achieved by considering single and higher order diffraction mechanisms occurring within a sphere conveniently defined by the positions of the transmitter and receiver. The inverse problem of antenna beamforming is also discussed