Using GIS for RF coverage

[wcu02mpa]

I am currently finishing my Master's Degree in Geography and am in a GIS/Geographic Information systems class (one of several). I have seen maps of RF coverage and am wondering several things.

1.Does ARCGIS have the ability to do this? I am thinking somewhere in the contour-elevation 3D analysis of the ARCtoolbox. If not ARCGIS then what sotware is the inductry standard?

2. Where can I get the data or shapefiles that would have info such as: antenna gain-type, power output, elevation, frequency and possibly something else I have not thought of. I know the FCC keeps the data that would have all of the above info.

I am getting used to some spatial analysis functions of GIS and would ike to try doing some RF coverage maps. If anyone else is using GIS for this application please let me know.

Mike

 

[kf8yk]

I am currently finishing my Master's Degree in Geography and am in a GIS/Geographic Information systems class (one of several). I have seen maps of RF coverage and am wondering several things.

1.Does ARCGIS have the ability to do this? I am thinking somewhere in the contour-elevation 3D analysis of the ARCtoolbox. If not ARCGIS then what sotware is the inductry standard?

Not aware of any propagation software that integrates with ESRI products, but here's one for MapInfo:

deciBel Planner

There are several professional propagation prediction packages available, most are priced well out of the range for hobbyist or student use. Many can use ESRI shapefiles to use as a base map or export their results to ESRI but they don't integrate with or require ArcMap.

TAP Terrain Analysis Package (TAP) Radio Propagation Software

ComStudy RadioSoft Products - When Radio Matters Most

SignalPro EDX® SignalPro® + Network Design Add-On Module - EDX Wireless

There are others that are more cellular network centric (Planet, Wizard, CelPlan)

If you want to experiment here are two free RF propagation programs to try:

Radio Mobile Radio Mobile WEB Site

SPLAT! SPLAT! A Terrestrial RF Path Analysis Application For Linux/Unix

 

[zz0468]

All good info that kf8yk provided. Radio mobile is free,but has a pretty steep learning curve. I've not tried Splat yet, but I am familiar with all of the commercial software previously mentioned, and can sleep walk through some. They all generally work the same way, applying several different mathematical propagation models to a digital terrain database that generally sources from USGS data. Most have resolution to at least 3" and I know Radio Mobile can use 1" data derived from Space Shuttle radar data that's available free on-line.

1.Does ARCGIS have the ability to do this? I am thinking somewhere in the contour-elevation 3D analysis of the ARCtoolbox. If not ARCGIS then what sotware is the inductry standard?

As stated, ARCGIS doesn't have the capability to generate the propagation maps, but the maps produced by ARCGIS can fairly easily be integrated into a detailed coverage map. Personally, I prefer to use Google Earth, because it's viewable by almost anybody at no cost. The process would involve generating a coverage plot with specialized software, then exporting the plot to a bitmap, and use the bitmap as an overlay to whatever mapping product one cares to use - ARCGIS, GE, etc.

2. Where can I get the data or shapefiles that would have info such as: antenna gain-type, power output, elevation, frequency and possibly something else I have not thought of. I know the FCC keeps the data that would have all of the above info.

Antenna pattern data is generally available in several standard formats from the various antenna manufacturers. In addition, most of the commercial programs have functionality to create your own pattern files with data available from the manufacturers. Site elevations comes from the terrain database, and/or engineered surveys, along with site-specific lat/lon data. Power output and receiver threshold etc. is specified by the system engineer, and if you need some generic numbers to plug in, just for learning purpose, that's easy to accommodate.

I am getting used to some spatial analysis functions of GIS and would ike to try doing some RF coverage maps. If anyone else is using GIS for this application please let me know.

Mike

Sounds like a fun project. Give Radio Mobile a try. I'm not familiar with it's ability to export a plot, but it can generate some pretty useful data, if one does it right. If you have the budget for it, the commercial products are in the several kilobuck range and are much more capable than Radio Mobile.

 

[code3cowboy]

I am slowly chipping away at a long term project mapping out some coverage for the local RACES group and creating some sort of overlay for the county GIS guy to add to the database.

I found radio mobile to be challenging to say the least, and no real way to set up propagation mapping in ARC without free forming polygons for each repeater.

Does anyone have a recommendation for the professional software?