A ray-tracing method for modeling indoor wave propagation and penetration

A ray-tracing method for waves inside buildings is presented. Ray tubes are used to model the wave propagation and penetration and all the significantly reflected and transmitted ray tubes from interfaces are included. Also, the cross sections of the ray tubes at the field points are evaluated to find the spreading factors of the waves and then the geometrical optics (GO) contributions at the locations of the receiving antenna. A program has been developed according to this ray-tracing technique that can be applied to simulate waves transmitted through and reflected from electrically large complex 2D and 3D bodies. To verify this ray-tracing program, 2D moment method (MM) solutions for wave propagating in a two-room structure and also through a stair-shaped wall above a lossy ground are used to compare with those obtained from the ray tracing. Besides, comparisons of field measurements and ray-tracing simulations at 900 and 1800 MHz performed in a corridor on different floors and inside a staircase are shown. The effective complex dielectric constants of the buildings determined from a free-space method are employed in the simulations and a vector network analyzer is used for the field measurements. Good agreements are obtained. In addition, measured results for waves penetrating an exterior wall with metal-framed windows at 1290 MHz are employed to test the ray-tracing solutions, which indicate that scattering from the metal frames may be significant for field points near the windows. This ray-tracing program can be applied to evaluate the channel characteristics for the indoor wireless communications.