Rural / Suburban Propagation

The workflow for a typical rural or suburban simulation is to import the terrain profile into ProMan, AMan to produce the antenna pattern and ProMan to simulate the model and view the results.

For a typical rural or suburban propagation simulation, the work flow is as follows:
  1. WallMan is usually not needed since a terrain profile is usually generated by a third party and imported directly into ProMan. However, a terrain profile can be imported into WallMan in special cases.
  2. Use Feko or AMan to produce the antenna pattern.

    For antenna design and simulation, Feko can be used. Feko can export antenna patterns in .ffe format, which ProMan can import.

    AMan is not an antenna simulator. Instead, it is a tool that enables you to produce an antenna pattern in WinProp format. The pattern may be converted from another source. AMan can generate an approximate 3D antenna pattern in cases where only two 2D pattern cuts are available and can combine antenna patterns to produce that of a base station.



    Figure 1. Base station patterns produced in AMan by combining individual antenna patterns with the geometrical and material specifications of the base station mounting structure.
  3. Start a new rural / suburban database in ProMan. Along with the topology (elevation) database, a land-usage (clutter) database can be loaded. A topology database specifies the hills while a land-usage database specifies the kind of surface the signals encounter, for example, forest, fields, water, sub-urban and buildings.


    Figure 2. Example land-usage database, used in addition to an elevation.
    The key menu in ProMan is Project > Edit Project Parameter. This brings up a window with multiple tabs, specific to the simulation of interest, where many simulation parameters are specified.


    Figure 3. The key menu in ProMan is Project > Edit Project Parameter.
    In this menu, you also select the simulation method. Several empirical models are fast but may be less suited for hilly terrain. Basic topological models take the topology into account. The deterministic two-ray model includes vertical multipath. The 3D Dominant Path Model is the most rigorous method for pure coverage studies without multipath effects.
  4. Run the simulation in ProMan through the Computation menu or by clicking the RUN PRO button.


    Figure 4. Click the RUN PRO button to run the simulation.
  5. Inspect the results in the same ProMan interface. Expand the tree on the left if necessary to access the results.


    Figure 5. Example coverage results for the Grand Canyon, computed with the dominant path model. Transmitter power 40 dBm, frequency 948 MHz.