A new approach for radio propagation modeling in urban environment: knife-edge diffraction combined with 2D ray-tracing

The design of a deterministic radio propagation model adapted to built-up areas is a tedious problem when considering the needs of radio planners, i.e. great accuracy and reasonable processing time. In that perspective, an innovative model for micro-cells has been developed by the French company Siradel. It combines two usual modeling methods: the multiple knife-edge approximation to take into account the propagation above rooftops and 2D ray-tracing to predict lateral interactions. Radio grid coverage and comparisons with experimental data are presented to prove the pertinence of the model.