Modeling Millimeter Wave Multipath Effects in Urban Environments

In this Phase II proposal, we present a novel solution for simulating wave propagation in urban areas, emphasizing dynamic scenarios with moving transmitters and receivers/sensors, and moving vehicles. Our new method is based on full three-dimensional ray-tracing to handle all aspects of multipath propagation, including reflections, diffractions, shadowing and scattering. This is further enhanced to extend above X-band frequencies to handle critical atmospheric and environmental effects at millimeter wave bands. The Phase I effort developed and tested techniques to calculate results rapidly, using a combination of unique preprocessing, optimized path generation, parallelization, and hardware acceleration, deriving from many years of experience in hardware-accelerated electromagnetic simulation. This provides accurate predictions of multipath, but does so in a way that can handle dynamic, quickly changing conditions, and offers tradeoffs between fidelity and speed. Results are accurate enough to support complex radar and antenna array applications for modern technologies in defense and industry, emphasizing urban scenarios with multipath between points that are in motion. The Phase II effort is focused on moving from the Phase I prototype to delivered applications that will provide valuable new simulation tools for radar, military and commercial communications, and mobility solutions for telecommunications and automotive industries.