Modelling of electromagnetic propagation characteristics in indoor wireless communication systems using the LOD-FDTD method

Wireless technologies has been attracting much attention due to its wide application. Thus it is important to predict the electromagnetic propagation characterization precisely. Full-wave time-domain electromagnetic methods are usually effective in rigorously modelling and evaluating wireless channels. However, their computational expenditures are expensive, when dealing with electrically large size problems consisting of fine structures. Thus, in this paper, a rigorous full-wave numerical solution, via the locally one-direction finite difference time domain (LOD-FDTD) method for lossy media, which reduces computational time by removing the Courant-Friedrich-Levy (CFL) stability condition, is applied to characterize the wireless channel. By comparing the simulation results with the conventional FDTD, the proposed method demonstrates both good simulation efficiency and high accuracy. Post-processing of the simulation results lead to effective channel characterization with path loss exponent and probability distribution of path loss.