Parabolic equation method simulations compared to measurements

In the past the Institut fur Hochstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik at the University of Karlsruhe was primarily involved in ray optical wave propagation modelling for broadcast and mobile communication according to Kurner et al. (1993). But an implementation of a ray optical model which takes into account simultaneously free space propagation, extinction, diffraction, reflection and refraction suffers from the limitations of the UTD and the invalidity at caustics. In contrast the parabolic equation method (PEM) which directly solves the parabolic approximation of the Helmholtz wave equation is well suited to analyse these combined effect. The paper summarises the basic ideas of the PEM for the 2D case. The well known split-step and implicit finite-difference approach are described very briefly. For verification purposes the paper shows a comparison between PEM calculations and measurements. The calculated path loss for several path profiles and frequencies shows an excellent agreement with measurements which were carried out by the University of Aalborg in Denmark for a project in COST 231.