Efficient Two-way Parabolic Equation Method with Sparse Fourier Transform for Radio Wave Propagation over Irregular Terrain

The fifth generation of wireless communication systems has adopted a much broader spectrum at higher frequency bands, which leads to an increasing need for efficient propagation models over irregular terrain. While the two-way parabolic equation method has gained extensive attention in radio wave propagation modeling over irregular terrain, it is computationally expensive when applied to simulations at high-frequency bands. This paper proposes an efficient two-way split-step parabolic equation-based model utilizing sparse Fourier transform. Numerical results show that computing time for modeling wave propagation over irregular terrain is significantly reduced. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed model are also validated against the measured data obtained from an actual terrain in northern Denmark.