METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING NETWORK PLANNING

摘要

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for implementing network planning in a radio system in a desired area. For determining the coverage area of a transmitter (100, 116) of the system a vector map describing the surroundings of the transmitter and comprising a description of the buildings and surfaces reflecting radio waves in the area is used. The signal strength of the transmitter is measured at different points of the desired area. In the solution of the invention a subset is selected among the points of the area and path attenuation is determined between all subset points using a ray tracing method, and the calculated values are stored in a memory. When performing network planning in the desired area, a transmitter (100, 116) and a receiver (102) are located at the desired points in the area, and a given number of the most significant signal paths among the possible signal propagation paths between the transmitter and the receiver is searched for using the values stored in the memory, and the signal strength of the transmitter is determined on the signal paths determined at the location point of the receiver using the ray tracing method. The method and apparatus of the invention can reduce the calculation time needed in network planning.