@kinuthia Thanks for the response and confirming my extrapolation. I didn't know there were that many tools. Thought only Cellular Expert and radio mobile were used. I am however not interested in developing a radio planning tool as that would be beyond my skill level and scope. I was thinking more of creating the terrain and clutter models using the satellite images or Aerial photos. If I can make accurate models cheaply using photogrammetry then that would be my value preposition to the telcos and related organizations and would justify 5 years of book grinding :) So I gather Safaricom simply acquires the models from survey firms e.g. Ramani and not do it inhouse? On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Kinuthia Ngugi <kinuthia.ngugi@gmail.com>wrote:
Your conjecture is very accurate. Most radio planning tools in the market utilize terrain and clutter data that is digitally modeled to represent what is actually on the ground. Resolution can very from tens of meters to even 1m, that means very accurate. These activities are done using a collection of techniques, mostly those you have mentioned here and many more. Then there are the normal topographical (surveyor) maps also used together with the digital models.
Locally I know of guys who do this, RAMANI, and I can tell you these models are expensive! Radio Planning tools like Mentum Planet, Asset, Atoll, etc use these data and many more inputs to do plans, fine tune them and optimize. So roughly what you're talking about is that you want to make a planning tool.....I wouldn't say you're reinventing the wheel, I would suggest you probably look up info on commercial or open source radio planning tools and see what you can do differently.
Rgds
On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey guys/guyettes,
Working on my final year university project and would like to know if I am furiously trying to re-invent the wheel.
I would like to use aerial photos/satellite images in the planning, mapping, optimizing and construction of radio communication networks. So that using remote sensed data (Aerial photos, satellite pics, LIDAR etc) the ground profile can be accurately modeled and the whole network designed without having to put boots on the ground. This could be applied in WIMAX, 3G, LTE, or even DVB-T2 transmission stations. I am biased towards Aerial Photos/photogrammetry seeing as It requires less tech and achieves good results. I also think (have no actual evidence) it is cheaper of all the stated methods in terms of temporal and spatial resolution.
My predicament is I do not know what is currently used. It is perfectly possible that what I have described is precisely what is done. Any techies on the list who work on the network planning side of telcos or independent contractors who can point me in the right direction or give me contacts of someone to talk to?
-- Regards,
Mark Mwangi
markmwangi.me.ke
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-- Regards, Mark Mwangi markmwangi.me.ke