Feasibility of using FDTD simulation with Openstreetmap

Hi,

I am doing some work on propagation of radio waves within a built up environment. I have looked at the following examples: https://uk.mathworks.com/help/antenna/ref/rfprop.raytracing.html and https://uk.mathworks.com/help/antenna/ug/urban-channel-link-analysis-and-visualization-using-ray-tracing.html where Openstreetmap has been used to set up the model for the propagation from a real world scenarios. I would like to take this a stage further with a more accurate simulation.

What I wanted to ask was, would it be feasible to use Matlab to import a Openstreetmap map containing buildings,roads, objects etc., just like in the example, and then apply the relevant boundary conditions to enable a FDTD simulation of a electromagentic wave to enable radio progation to be simulated? Obviously, I reliase this would be extremely computationally demanding.

Best regards,

Andy

Answer 1

[Arun]

Hi Andy,

I understand that you are interested in utilizing ray tracing to analyse communication links and then enable FDTD simulation of an electromagnetic wave to enable radio propagation to be simulated.

As of the latest MATLAB release, R2024a, there are no inbuilt method for FDTD simulations. Here are some reference links that might be useful:

1. A MATLAB answer, which provides an alternative method to FDTD, titled “Importing geometry from cell data for 3D model”: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2118586-importing-geometry-from-cell-data-for-3d-model.
2. MathWorks File exchange, “FDTD – 1D, 2D, 3D Simple Free Space Examples”: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/93045-fdtd-1d-2d-3d-simple-free-space-examples

Hope this helps!

Regards

Arun

Answer 2

[Andy]

Thank you for this information Arun, it is very helpful.