Radio connectivity is ubiquitous and essential to our daily lives. It connects us with friends and family, provides access to social media and streaming, and enables collaboration with colleagues globally. As the digital thread becomes more prevalent, data flow within companies increases to help align colleagues and improve efficiency and product design. Radio connectivity makes data exchange possible.
Radio connectivity is also fundamental to integrating IoT devices into our smart homes. From controlling appliances, security systems, lighting, climate, or outdoor irrigation systems, it facilitates automation and allows you to spend more time with loved ones.
With the new High Frequency Electromagnetic solutions in Altair SimLab, the Radio Coverage Solution can predict radio coverage inside buildings. It integrates WinProp's Solver into SimLab's multidisciplinary simulation environment to analyze and predict indoor radio coverage, from simple home setups to complex, multi-floor office buildings, factories, convention centers, and universities.
As an interesting case, we examine a real-world example of investigating the placement of an IoT device (a Wi-Fi irrigation system) in a home using Altair SimLab.
The placement of an IoT device will be examined inside a home.
Is there radio coverage at locations 1, 2, and 3? If so, which location would be best for an irrigation controller that will manage outdoor irrigation valves?
The three locations that will be evaluated
Using SimLab's GUI, a house model was created, and an antenna was added to represent the Wi-Fi router. Since the IoT device operates at 2.4 GHz, the IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi standard was chosen as the wireless interface.
The following results were obtained using the Dominant Path Model (DPM) propagation model:
The results were obtained using the DPM model at 2.4 GHz.
Based on the above prediction, we can conclude that all locations will work, as the minimum reliable connection is any signal strength of -80 dBm or higher. Location 3 has the best connectivity among the three.
Check out the tutorial for a detailed step-by-step guide on setting up a Radio Coverage Solution.
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