An open-source radio coverage prediction tool

The cellular concept applied in mobile communication systems enables significant increase of overall system capacity, but requires careful radio network planning and dimensioning. Wireless and mobile network operators typically rely on various commercial radio network planning and dimensioning tools, which incorporate different radio signal propagation models. In this paper we present the use of open-source Geographical Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) for the calculation of radio signal coverage. We developed GRASS modules for radio coverage prediction for a number of different radio channel models, with antenna radiation patterns given in the standard MSI format. The results are stored in a data base (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL) for further processing and in a simplified form as a bit-map file for displaying in GRASS. The accuracy of prediction was confirmed by comparison with results obtained by a dedicated professional prediction tool as well as with measurement results.