A fast ray tracing algorithm for network planning based on relative coverage computations

摘要

Hot spot coverage requirements of indoor environments necessitate adequate network platforms and optimal network planning. Optimal network planning imposes numerous iterative computations and evaluations of network coverage until the optimal antenna layout is achieved. Typically, iterations within optimization algorithms invoke neighboring search functions where one of the antennas of a given antenna layout solution changes its position while the rest of the antennas' locations are maintained fixed. Such process is repeated successively with the corresponding coverage being evaluated until the optimal antenna layout is declared. Accordingly, the underlying ray tracing algorithm for coverage computations is called repeatedly during the optimization process leading to significantly long optimization convergence times. In this paper, an enhancement to our recently proposed ray tracing algorithm is proposed where computations based on image theory during the optimization routine may be derived from previous achieved solutions rather than overtaking the whole computation process. Simulation results confirm the superior potential for computational time gains achieved by the proposed algorithm.