Highlights of the 2022.3 Release

 

The Feko 2022.3 release features extensions to many different solvers - enhancing Feko’s capabilities in propagation modelling, network planning as well as general and specialist EM analysis application areas. There are various performance improvements, interoperability and API extension, enabling more flexible workflows and automation.

 

Feko

Added Domain Connectivity for Continuous Mesh

In previous versions of Feko, mesh connectivity between parts could only be achieved when the parts had a common interface with shared vertices (a continuous mesh). For most geometric changes, the whole model needed to be remeshed to maintain connectivity between parts. When making localized geometric changes in large models or models that include imported meshes (for example, generated using Altair HyperMesh or Altair SimLab), the requirement to re mesh all connected parts to maintain connectivity can be challenging.

In Feko 2022.3 for MoM and MoM/MLFMM simulations, a new domain connectivity option was added. By specifying Domain Connectivity for specific parts, the meshes of those parts will be treated as if “connected” in places where the borders of the meshes are close together even though the mesh vertices on those borders are not coincident. This means that parts that have not changed do not need to be re meshed.

A typical use case would be an antenna placement study, where an antenna (parameterised geometry) is placed on the roof of a large pre-generated car mesh (static mesh).

An installed performance study using a static imported car mesh and a parameterised antenna
geometry. Though there are no shared mesh vertices between the car roof and the antenna ground plane,
the roof and antenna ground plane will be treated by the MoM/MLFMM Solver as if “connected” based on the
Domain Connectivity specified in a DC card.

 

Extensions to Next-Generation CADFEKO

Next-generation CADFEKO has been improved and extended to include various features that were available in CADFEKO [LEGACY] including performance improvements and bug-fixes.

 

Some of the extensions added to the new CADFEKO interface implementation.

 

Zooming for Surface Graphs

Surface graphs in POSTFEKO were extended to support interactive zooming on the graph.

 

Specify Waveguide Mesh Ports Using Mesh Vertices

Waveguide mesh ports can now be defined using mesh vertices. This option can be used when specifying a waveguide mesh port for FEM.

The Create Waveguide Mesh Port dialog where you can specify a waveguide mesh port using vertices.

 

Support for Reduced .REI files generated by Altair PollEx

The Feko Source Data Viewer now supports reduced .rei files generated by Altair PollEx, where data is excluded that will have little impact on radiated emissions calculations to reduce both .rei file and simulation times.

 

WinProp

Improvements to the Shooting and Bouncing Rays (SBR) Method

For projects that use an antenna pattern at the transmitter, the SBR method is accelerated by incorporating the antenna's gain in path loss estimation. For calculations involving scattering, the accuracy is improved, and the memory consumption is reduced.

 

Added Double Diffraction with Path Segment Along Wall/Roof for Standard Ray Tracing (SRT)

The Standard Ray Tracing (SRT) was extended to include double-edge diffraction by the same building, such that the ray grazes the roof or a side wall between the two edge diffractions. This is important for obtaining the power behind a building.

 

Option to Add Sound Barriers (Single Walls) to Urban Databases

Noise barriers along roads or highways can now be included in urban databases by drawing polylines in WallMan to represent walls. These sound barriers are not included automatically when importing urban databases, for example, from OpenStreetMap.

 

    

Left: Example of coverage without noise barriers; Right: Example of coverage with noise barriers.

The difference between the coverage.

 

Import Trajectories and Time Variance from .CSV Files in ProMan

Time variance is normally defined in WallMan, but the option was added to import time steps and trajectories from .csv files in ProMan. Once the time dynamics are imported, the time-variant parameters are greyed out, and the values are set from the file. This allows advanced users to change the ASCII project file with external software.

Trajectories can now also be imported from a .csv file where the file contains columns of data. Each column in the .csv file can be matched to a quantity in WinProp. Measured data can be included to by adding a column in the .csv file and used to visualise and compare against WinProp results. The measured results will not show up in the result tree, but a result file will be placed in the results folder.

 

An example of where the field strength was imported from a .csv file.

 

Support for ASAM OpenDrive Format

The ASAM OpenDRIVE format (provides a road network description that is used to simulate and validate ADAS features) can now be converted to  WinProp indoor format.

 

Left: The Conversion of Indoor Vector Database dialog; Right: An example of an ASAM OpenDrive database converted to WinProp indoor format.

 

WRAP

Output Quantities for LTE Communication Systems, Including Data Rates, Including MIMO

For LTE communication systems, the following extensions were added:

• The reporting of key performance indicators such as RSRP, RSRQ and RSSI.
• For systems that employ multiple transmission modes, predict data rates and throughput at any receiver (mobile-station) location based on quantities like minimum required received power and minimum Signal-to-Noise-and-Interference Ratio.
• The effect of MIMO is included.

An example of where LTE and LTE2 occupy the same frequency. Data rates were requested for station LTE1, while station LTE2 was also active.

 

Additional Features for Population Data from Global Human Settlement Database

Support was added to import and use the Global Human Settlement Population Database as provided by the European Commission.

   

Examples of population data.