Fast Field Strength Prediction

CORLA - Cube Oriented Ray Launching Algorithm

 

Tool description:

  • CORLA is a deterministic radio wave propagation prediction component based on 3D ray launching. CORLA uses a discrete cube based representation of the supplying area that leads to a fast identification and processing of diffraction and reflection sources. Mathematical optimization techniques ensure that only important rays are pursued, which makes CORLA 20-40 times faster than state-of-the-art ray tracking solutions.  

  • CORLA combines the accuracy and analysis power of ray-optical methods with the short running times of empirical models.

  • An urban area prediction of 1 square kilometer with a 5 meter resolution takes less than 10 sec.

Performance:

(click to enlarge)

 

Field strength 
intense to weak

Test scenario Munich (COST 231): 

  • 4.1 square kilometer predicted

  • resolution of 5 meter

  • Omni-directional antenna below rooftop

  • parameter optimization with drive test 1

  • prediction of drive test 2 with STD 6.94 dB

  • running time 9 seconds on a standard PC

(click to enlarge)

Measurement vs. prediction

Features:

  • Full support of vector-oriented building data (2.5D), raster-oriented terrain data, and antenna patterns.

  • Calculation of received power, angle-of-arrival, and delay-spread for a user defined reception sphere.

  • Includes horizontal and vertical diffraction, reflection, and indoor prediction (building penetration).

  • Offers a the simple, easy-to-use graphical user interface and is perfectly suited to be used as an Add-On in leading GIS and radio network planning software tools.

 

Highlights:

  • Automatic model-parameter optimization. Even though CORLA is a "deterministic" model, the parameters for an additional loss caused by diffraction/reflection are likely to vary for different scenarios. In contrast to other ray-optical methods CORLAīs model parameters are not fixed but user defined. The model is easy and comprises a distant-dependent path loss plus an additional angle-dependent loss for each diffraction/reflection. It is able to approximate any common or  upcoming physical model (e.g. UTD). Given a drive test for a new scenario, CORLA automatically optimizes its model parameters by minimizing the standard deviation (STD). 

 

Your benefits:

  • Obtain extensive urban predictions almost online in only a few seconds.

  • Benefit from CORLAīs short running times and analyze hundreds of different configurations with our new automatic cell planning solutions for network optimization.

 

References:

  • LS telcom AG refers to CORLA as the "presumably fastest Microcell model available today". CORLA is fully integrated into LS telcomīs CHIRplus_UMTS tool suite.

  • NIRView, a visualization and analysis software for the exposure of radiation sources, is powered by CORLA.