Multi-cell coverage predictions: a massively parallel approach based on the ParFlow method

Future and current radio communications systems based on dynamic channel allocation or CDMA do not require any or very limited frequency planning. This leads to emphasize the importance of coverage predictions in radio planning tools for the future. Current radio propagation predictions are usually based on computations which must be performed separately for each cell in a radio network. Thus, the computation time is directly proportional to the number of cells considered. A scheme named ParFlow can inherently provide coverage predictions for one or several cells without any major effect on the computation time. The capability of the multiple cells simulations of the ParFlow scheme is demonstrated and analyzed for both the computation of composite coverage and the prediction of best server maps. The performance of parallel computations over a network of PC-based workstations is also investigated.