Tools for ray tracing based radio channel modeling and simulation

Abstract. Ray tracing-based methods have become the state of the art for radio channel propagation modeling simulations. They provide a way to deterministically simulate field strength and multidispersive characteristics of the radio channel, and thus, offer a faster and easier alternative to measuring. Ray tracing is also an important tool for validating algorithms, and many applications can utilize the simulation results. As the wireless networks suffer from increasing complexity, the interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions is increasing as well, and in this context the simulation results can be utilized as training data. We introduce the relevant theory in radio propagation modeling in the context of ray tracing, followed by theory of graphics processing unit-based computing, architecture, and ray tracing. We present multiple existing graphics processing unit and ray tracing-based radio channel propagation modeling implementations from the literature. We then develop multiple optimized versions of an existing environment discretization-based path search implementation and develop a path refiner for refining the coarse paths generated by the path search. The path refiner computes the optimal paths, and then validates them by utilizing ray tracing. Experiments for the developed solutions are conducted with an indoor and an outdoor model on two different computer setups. We achieve on average over 25 times faster computation in the outdoor scene and over 4 times faster computation in the indoor scene when compared to the original path search implementation. The path refiner is able to find the optimal paths fulfilling the Fermat’s principle of least time on average for over 96% of the coarse paths in the outdoor scene, and for over 99% in the indoor scene. From these refined paths, on average about 62% pass the validation phase in the outdoor case, and around 30% in the indoor case. The results show that the path refinement combined with validation is essential for improving the quality of the paths found by the initial discretization-based search.Työkaluja säteenseurantaan perustuvaan radiokanavamallinnukseen ja simulointiin. Tiivistelmä. Säteenseurantaan perustuvat menetelmät ovat edistyneintä tekniikkaa radiokanavien etenemisen mallinnussimulaatioissa. Ne tarjoavat tavan deterministisesti arvioida radiokanavan kentänvoimakkuutta ja monidispersiivisiä ominaisuuksia ja siten tarjoavat nopeamman ja helpomman vaihtoehdon mittaamiselle. Säteenseuranta on myös tärkeä työkalu algoritmien validoinnissa ja useissa sovelluksissa voidaan hyödyntää simulointien tuloksia. Langattomien verkkojen monimutkaisuuden lisääntyessä myös kiinnostus koneoppimis- ja tekoälypohjaisiin ratkaisuihin lisääntyy, ja tässä yhteydessä simulointien tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää opetusdatana. Tässä työssä esitellään teoriaa radiokanavan etenemisen mallinnuksesta säteenseurantaan perustuen, jonka jälkeen esitellään näytönohjainpohjaisen laskennan, arkkitehtuurin, sekä säteenseurannan teoriaa. Tämän jälkeen tarkastellaan useita olemassa olevia näytönohjain- ja säteenseurantapohjaisia radiokanavan etenemistä mallintavia toteutuksia. Työssä kehitetään useita optimoituja versioita olemassa olevasta ympäristön diskretisointiin perustuvasta polunetsintätoteutuksesta ja kehitetään poluntarkentaja tarkentamaan sen tuottamia epäoptimaalisia polkuja. Poluntarkentaja laskee optimaaliset polut ja validoi ne hyödyntämällä säteenseurantaa. Ratkaisuiden tehokkuutta arvioidaan sekä ulko- että sisätilan malleille tehtävillä laskennoilla kahdella eri tietokoneella. Paras polunetsintäversio saavuttaa keskimäärin yli 25 kertaa nopeamman laskennan ulkotilassa ja yli 4 kertaa nopeamman laskennan sisätilassa verrattaessa alkuperäiseen toteutukseen. Poluntarkentaja löytää optimaaliset polut, jotka täydentävät Fermat’n periaatteen lyhyimmästä ajasta keskimäärin yli 96 prosentille karkeista poluista ulkotilassa ja yli 99 prosentille sisätilassa. Näistä tarkennetuista poluista keskimäärin noin 62 prosenttia pääsee läpi validoinnista ulkotilassa ja noin 30 prosenttia sisätilassa. Tulokset osoittavat, että polkujen tarkennus ja validointi ovat tärkeitä alkuperäisen diskretisointipohjaisen haun löytämien polkujen laadun parantamiseksi

AZB Rectangle Shrinkage Method and Heterogeneous Computing Accelerated Full Image Theory Method Ray Tracing Enabling Complex and Massive Outdoor 6G Propagation Modeling

Until now, despite their high accuracy, the utilization of the conventional image theory method ray tracers was limited to simple simulation environments with small number of field observation points and low maximum ray bouncing order due to their poor computational efficiency. This study presents a novel full-3D AZB rectangle shrinkage method and heterogeneous computing accelerated image theory method ray tracing framework for complex and massive outdoor propagation modeling. The proposed framework is divided into three parts: 1. Visibility preprocessing part. 2. Visibility tree generation part: in this part, a novel AZB rectangle shrinkage method that accelerates and reduces generation speed and size of visibility tree is proposed. 3. Shadow testing and field calculation part: in this part, a heterogeneous computing algorithm that can make possible to handle a large amount of field observation points is proposed. It is demonstrated that the proposed framework is faster more than 651 times than the image theory method solver of WinProp. Also, it is confirmed that the proposed ray tracing framework can handle 1km x 1km wide and dense urban outdoor simulation with up to the maximum ray bouncing order of 6 and thousands of field observation points. The proposed ray tracing framework would be a cornerstone of future image theory method ray tracing techniques for complex and massive scenarios that was exclusive to the shooting and bouncing rays method ray tracers

Viability of Numerical Full-Wave Techniques in Telecommunication Channel Modelling

In telecommunication channel modelling the wavelength is small compared to the physical features of interest, therefore deterministic ray tracing techniques provide solutions that are more efficient, faster and still within time constraints than current numerical full-wave techniques. Solving fundamental Maxwell's equations is at the core of computational electrodynamics and best suited for modelling electrical field interactions with physical objects where characteristic dimensions of a computing domain is on the order of a few wavelengths in size. However, extreme communication speeds, wireless access points closer to the user and smaller pico and femto cells will require increased accuracy in predicting and planning wireless signals, testing the accuracy limits of the ray tracing methods. The increased computing capabilities and the demand for better characterization of communication channels that span smaller geographical areas make numerical full-wave techniques attractive alternative even for larger problems. The paper surveys ways of overcoming excessive time requirements of numerical full-wave techniques while providing acceptable channel modelling accuracy for the smallest radio cells and possibly wider. We identify several research paths that could lead to improved channel modelling, including numerical algorithm adaptations for large-scale problems, alternative finite-difference approaches, such as meshless methods, and dedicated parallel hardware, possibly as a realization of a dataflow machine

Heterogeneous Acceleration for 5G New Radio Channel Modelling Using FPGAs and GPUs

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

FPGA Acceleration of 3GPP Channel Model Emulator for 5G New Radio

The channel model is by far the most computing intensive part of the link level simulations of multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) fifth-generation new radio (5G NR) communication systems. Simulation effort further increases when using more realistic geometry-based channel models, such as the three-dimensional spatial channel model (3D-SCM). Channel emulation is used for functional and performance verification of such models in the network planning phase. These models use multiple finite impulse response (FIR) filters and have a very high degree of parallelism which can be exploited for accelerated execution on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) platforms. This paper proposes an efficient re-configurable implementation of the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) 3D-SCM on FPGAs using a design flow based on high-level synthesis (HLS). It studies the effect of various HLS optimization techniques on the total latency and hardware resource utilization on Xilinx Alveo U280 and Intel Arria 10GX 1150 high-performance FPGAs, using in both cases the commercial HLS tools of the producer. The channel model accuracy is preserved using double precision floating point arithmetic. This work analyzes in detail the effort to target the FPGA platforms using HLS tools, both in terms of common parallelization effort (shared by both FPGAs), and in terms of platform-specific effort, different for Xilinx and Intel FPGAs. Compared to the baseline general-purpose central processing unit (CPU) implementation, the achieved speedups are 65X and 95X using the Xilinx UltraScale+ and Intel Arria FPGA platform respectively, when using a Double Data Rate (DDR) memory interface. The FPGA-based designs also achieved ~3X better performance compared to a similar technology node NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, while consuming ~4X less energy. The FPGA implementation speedup improves up to 173X over the CPU baseline when using the Xilinx UltraRAM (URAM) and High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) resources, also achieving 6X lower latency and 12X lower energy consumption than the GPU implementation

A Multi-Frequency Investigation of Air-To-Ground Urban Propagation Using a GPU-based Ray Launching Algorithm

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as “drones”, are attracting increasing attention as enablers for many technical applications and services, and this trend is likely to continue in the next future. When compared to conventional terrestrial communications, those making use of UAVs as base- or relay-stations can definitely be more useful and flexible in reaction to specific events, like natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Among the many and different fields, UAV enabled communications emerge as one of the most promising solutions for next-generation mobile networks, with a special focus on the extension of coverage and capacity of mobile radio networks. Motivated by the air-to-ground (A2G) propagation conditions which are likely to be different than those experienced by traditional ground communication systems, this paper aims at investigating the narrowband properties of the air-to-ground channel for 5G communications and beyond by means of GPU accelerated ray launching simulations. Line of sight probability as well as path loss exponent and shadowing standard deviations are analysed for different UAV flight levels, frequencies and dense urban scenarios, and for different types of on board antennas. Thanks to the flexibility of the ray approach, the role played by the different electromagnetic interactions, namely reflection, diffraction and diffuse scattering, in the air-to-ground propagation process is also investigated. Computation time is reported as well to show that designing UAV communication networks and optimising their performances in a fast and reliable manner, might avoid exhausting – multiple - measurement campaigns

Development and validation of real-time simulation of X-ray imaging with respiratory motion

International audienceWe present a framework that combines evolutionary optimisation, soft tissue modelling and ray tracing on GPU to simultaneously compute the respiratory motion and X-ray imaging in real-time. Our aim is to provide validated building blocks with high fidelity to closely match both the human physiology and the physics of X-rays. A CPU-based set of algorithms is presented to model organ behaviours during respiration. Soft tissue deformation is computed with an extension of the Chain Mail method. Rigid elements move according to kinematic laws. A GPU-based surface rendering method is proposed to compute the X-ray image using the Beer-Lambert law. It is provided as an open-source library. A quantitative validation study is provided to objectively assess the accuracy of both components: i) the respiration against anatomical data, and ii) the X-ray against the Beer-Lambert law and the results of Monte Carlo simulations. Our implementation can be used in various applications, such as interactive medical virtual environment to train percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography in interventional radiology, 2D/3D registration, computation of digitally reconstructed radiograph, simulation of 4D sinograms to test tomography reconstruction tools

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented