New integration of radio path analysis with Google Earth
Aurora CO, December 8, 2008 - SoftWright, LLC, developers of the Terrain Analysis Package Software (TAP)tm now provide the capability to visually see the details of a radio path analysis or rf coverage map using Google Earth. The application can be used to visualize virtually all types of radio system paths.
In the past radio system designers have relied heavily upon a predictive technique developed by a French physicist, Augustine-Jean Fresnel. His modeling predicted an invisible envelope of transmitted energy that surrounds the line-of-sight on the entire path between a transmitter and a repeater. When any obstruction penetrates this envelope, the received signal level is reduced, sometimes causing degradation so severe that the path was not usable for radio or data links. Up to now this modeling was a simplified, 2-dimensional graphic, where the engineer looked at the terrain profile of the path. If the entire portion of the Fresnel zone to be protected was above the elevation of the ground and obstructions along the path, then the receiver had the maximum possible signal. SoftWright has developed a way of graphically modeling not only the portion of the Fresnel zone that lies below the actual path line-of-sight, but also on both sides of the exact path, where additional path losses are created. Up to now this degradation would have been undetected. With this newly designed rf modeling tool developed by SoftWright and integrated with Google Earth, the engineer can fly down an entire path and look at the areas that would cause signal deterioration down the entire path including the side lobes of the protected Fresnel zone. Only when one knows precisely where these obstructed locations are, can an engineer proceed with strategic solutions to seek to eliminate locations where the signal is unreliable.
The example above shows that terrain severely blocked the reception on this path. The Terrain Analysis Package Software allows the designer to know in advance if these problems will be present and also to make design adjustments to eliminate or minimize these types of problems. If radio coverage is problematic the Terrain Analysis is Package (TAP)tm software can evaluate many proposed solutions so that the system reliability can be greatly improved.
