Types of Buildings

Four different types of buildings are possible. The different types of buildings are:
  • Standard buildings
    Standard buildings can be used to model a building in an urban environment.
  • Horizontal Plates
    Horizontal plates can be used to model horizontal objects in an urban environment that have a certain thickness but do not reach the ground (for example, bridges).
  • Courtyards & Towers
    This type of building is used to define a building which is totally inside another building. If the inner building is higher this is called a tower and if it is lower it is called a court.
  • Vegetation buildings
    This type of building is used to model vegetation (for example, parks, trees). The building is transparent (the rays have no interactions like reflection or diffraction at the vegetation building).
  • Virtual buildings
    With this type of building only pixels are excluded from the prediction (all pixels inside virtual buildings are not computed to accelerate the prediction and reduce the memory requirements). The virtual buildings are transparent for all prediction models. So, the rays can pass the building without any additional loss. Only pixels inside the virtual buildings will not be predicted to save computation time.
Table 1. Types of Buildings in Urban Databases
Type Standard Horizontal Plate Tower Vegetation Virtual
Interactions with rays (refl., diff.) Yes Yes Yes No, transparent No, transparent
Prediction of pixels inside Only with special indoor models No Only with special indoor models Yes, but with add. attenuation [dB] No
Rays through the building No No No Yes, with add. attenuation[dB/m] Yes, no add. attenuation
Material properties Standard Set (Permittivity, Permeability, Conductance, Reflection Loss, Transmission Loss, Diffraction Loss) Standard Set (Permittivity, Permeability, Conductance, Reflection Loss, Transmission Loss, Diffraction Loss) Standard Set (Permittivity, Permeability, Conductance, Reflection Loss, Transmission Loss, Diffraction Loss) Additional attenuation for pixels [dB]

Additional attenuation of rays [dB/m]

Properties not relevant
Building Type ID 0 31 3 2 1