Antenna Patterns
Specify antenna patterns for accurate wave propagation modeling.
Motivation
Radio network planning tools rely on accurate wave propagation models to predict the path loss between two arbitrary points. In addition to the interactions with objects and ground, the radiation patterns of the antennas used for the communication link influence the actual received power. Therefore, the antenna patterns must be described accurately within the radio network planning tool.
Antenna Patterns in AMan
This example contains several antenna patterns. The tool AMan (Antenna Manager) can be used to generate, visualize, and edit antenna patterns. Figure 1 shows the AMan antenna patterns, for example, the 3D pattern, the vertical plane view, and the horizontal plane view of the radiation pattern of a base-station sector antenna.
Figure 1. Visualization of the antenna pattern for Kathrein K739856.
File Formats
In the examples .apa files contain 3D patterns in ASCII format while .apb files contain 3D patterns in binary format. Sometimes only horizontal and vertical pattern cuts are available from antenna vendors or publications. AMan offers the capability to produce full 3D patterns from such input.
Many antenna manufacturers offer digital patterns of their antennas in the .msi data format. These patterns can directly be used with all WinProp components.
It should be mentioned that AMan and ProMan can import 3D antenna patterns from Feko, in .ffe format, directly.