WLAN propagation on the bridge of vessels under consideration of material properties

This paper deals with the propagation conditions of 2.4 GHz RF waves on a bridge of a modern cruise vessel which is important for evaluation of the EMC behavior of the electronic bridge equipment. The intention of such an evaluation is to ensure, that electronic equipment as well as the wireless transmission line is not disturbed. The bridge has been discretisized as a 3D model which includes the material data of the different objects on the bridge, for instance: glass, metal and wood. The reflection, transmission and other material coefficients are taken into account. A ray tracing algorithm has been applied to this model and the maximum data rate of a 2.4 GHz wireless LAN system has been simulated. In addition measurements on the bridge have been performed to back up the simulation results and to investigate the real case.