Pathloss 5 - Revision history

Pathloss 5 - revision date August 25, 2009

Pl50 Options

Site Attributes, Site Label, Link Attributes and Link Labels can now be applied to a group or selection.

Set GIS Configuration

The File index for NLCD2001 clutter did not show the clutter name on the caption

PL40 radome loss

When a pl4 file containing a valid antenna code was opened in the standalone PL50L application, the antenna data was reloaded. This caused the radome loss to reset.

Space diversity - IF combining - corrected.

Changed gr5 save routine to guard against header errors.

Pathloss 5 - revision date August 17, 2009

Transmission summary report when invoked from the transmission analysis menu bar always showed the distance and elevation in Miles / feet

Network to PL5 discrepancy dialog. Direction arrow buttons did not function.

Pathloss 5 - revision date August 13, 2009

Network display - Map crossings

The map crossing function has been implemented. This is only valid for the default network projection. First set the axis to correspond to the desired maps (Click configure - PL50 options - axis-map grid). Then right click on the link and select map crossings. If the US 1:24,000 7.5 minute map scale has been selected, the report will show the actual map names.

Terrain data module

The reverse profile did not reverse the site names on the status bar.

Fixed google earth datum transformation.

Fixed minor bugs related to the no data entries in clutter databases.

Pathloss 5 - revision date August 6, 2009

Group manager

The visibility display rules have been changed to allow a group containing only links to be displayed. Some fixes have been made involving operations where some sites and links are hidden.

Antenna heights section

The graphical antenna heights display now does not show the minimum clearance criteria. Previously this was show as a modification to the Fresnel zone radius. Although the results were correct, this display was somewhat confusing.

The minimum clearance criteria is intended to provide clearance for close in obstructions where K and the Fresnel zone radius are very small and can lead to a grazing path. Note that when this is specified, the antenna heights cannot be less than this value.

Radio data entry form (Adaptive modulation)

Clicking the blue button to access the adaptive modulation table, could bring up a second instance of the table which could cause a program crash.

Update PL5 files has been added. This function is available on the site list menu bar. The procedure checks all associated pl5 files and compares the site data to the data in the site list. If there are any differences the user is prompted to modify the pl5 file. This is a one direction change - Network site data to pl5 file.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 31, 2009

NLCD2001 and NCLD2002 clutter data downloads in BIL format from the USGS site are now working. These files can be used with the July 31, 2009 program build.

NED and SRTM elevation data downloads in BIL format are now in a 32 bit floating point format. We believe that this is an error as the definition of the BIL format on the USGS site states that the elevations are in a signed 16 bit integer format. The new float files are twice the size of the integer files.

The July 31, 2009 program build will read the floating point files.

The Group manager operation has been revised so that links can exist in a group without the associated sites being in the group. This allows the user to create a group with links only or with sites only. Combinations of sites and links in a group are still possible. In this arrangement, links can now be hidden without hiding the sites.

Printing and copying the network display with backdrops produced black ares where the backdrop was missing.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 29, 2009

Site list does not reset display unless coordinates are changed.

Set GIS Configuration correctly recognizes when the projection of the display has changed.

Pl5 Link Files deleted by Pathloss are now sent to the recycle bin rather than being permanently deleted.

Reports

Fixed bugs causing columns to be out of sync and filenames to not be displayed in some cases.

Antenna Usage is shown next to the antenna model in the transmission detail and transmission summary reports.

Point to point link design

The antenna coupling unit (ACU) data entry form in the base station definition did not match up with the ACU data entry in the Link Design Rules. These are now exactly the same interface

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 24, 2009

The addition of new fields to site data caused a crash in the site data entry forms.

Fixed error in which a group could become corrupted when importing from site text files.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 22, 2009

Obstruction Fading

A preliminary implementation is available in the transmission analysis design section. Click Operations - Obstruction fading. The next program build will include the documentation and the obstruction fading will be incorporated into the reports

Local and area studies

The receive at base station option cause an error.

CSV link report

The antenna usage field has been added. This will only appear if the antenna model is checked.

Import text links

Quotation marks were not automatically removed.

A preliminary request for frequency coordination CSV report has been added. Click Operations - Frequency Coordination report. The report format may change based on discussions with Alcatel and Comsearch. The following fields have been added to the site data structure for this report.

• Antenna registration number char[16]
• Zip code char[16]
• Tower height with Appurtenances

Under some circumstances - distance, azimuth and projected coordinates were not automatically calculated from the site coordinates.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 9, 2009

ASTER GeoTiff Data

Support for the ASTER geotiff terrain elevation data has been added. This is a one arc second data base with global coverage over the latitude range 83N to 83S. This has been implemented as a BIL geographic DEM.

Radio and Antenna Cross Reference

The radio and antenna cross reference in the link text file import has been implemented. Note that at this time there is no check on the code validity and the codes are not expanded to complete missing data entries.

Antenna lookup tables

The default antenna lookup table was not loaded on startup.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 3, 2009

Site text import

Site elevation values were corrupted in the import procedure.

Local studies

The climate region was was not being updated in both local and area studies. A continental temperate climate was used in all cases.

Network

The move site operation did not update the azimuths in any associated pl5 files. Move site can be potentially dangerous. Additional work is underway to advise users of the full impact of the site move operation.

Pathloss 5 - revision date July 2, 2009

The options dialog in the transmission analysis section was missing. This dialog allows the entry of water vapor density in microwave - adaptive modulation applications and the location selection for land mobile applications

Time variability was not being updated in both local and area studies. A constant time variability of 50% was being used.

Auto link design on PTMP links using all sites within a specified radius, did not consider the visibility state of the sites.

Pathloss 5 - revision date June 30, 2009

Group manager

The user interface for editing groups as a list has been completely revised. The group visibility interface has also been revised.

Adaptive modulation

The percent of time in mode is now show for the total annual throughput.

CSV Link Report

The options for Transmission detail and Transmission summary were reversed. Site coordinates were only exported in degrees minutes and seconds format. The decimal degree option now works.

Reflective plane definition

Continued resetting and redefining a reflective plane could cause a program crash.

Pathloss 5 - revision date June 22, 2009

Assigned antenna height

The import site text file (csv) now includes an assigned antenna height field. The value is not displayed in the site list display. Click Edit - Edit item to view all fields in the site list including the assigned antenna height. This field is used in the following auto-design operations:

 create PTP links
 create PTMP links
 design links (PTP and PTMP)

The Link design rules includes the option "Use assigned antenna heights" in the Antenna heights - tx lines setting. When this option is checked, the assigned value for a site will be used in all links from that site. If there is no value for the assigned antenna height, the tower height will be used. If both the assigned antenna height and tower height are not available, the site will not be used in the design operation.

Use the "Clearance" display criteria to display the results of the design operation using the assigned antenna heights.

PL4 files can be exported using group or selection directly from the Network display.

The clearance criteria used in the link design rules were not saved once the session was closed.

Radio and antenna lookup tables

If the default lookup table file cannot be found, the program would crash. The antenna lookup table high and low frequency values did not sort correctly.

GIS setup

Clutter index for was not saved correctly under certain conditions.

Pathloss 5 - revision date June 15, 2009

Set GIS Configuration

The default directory specification has been changed from a single directory to individual file directories when importing an index.

Some procedures involving lookup tables and code indexes, could cause the data entry form to loose focus and go behind the network display.

Import link text file

This procedure has been revised to include 3 antennas and 12 TX channel entries. Still outstanding are the cross references between the radio and antenna codes in the csv file and the actual codes to be used.

Pathloss 5 - revision date May 26, 2009

The Design link function has been completely revised and divided into two functions. The Design links function only operates on links without a pl5 file association. The Edit-Modify links function only operates on links with an existing pl5 file association.

Network Operations

The following side effects introduced in the due to the May 19 build have been corrected The Performance function caused a program crash The Add site and Move site dialogs sizes were not usable

Rain calculations

The ITU-R P.837-5 rain data base has been added to the program. The original 837-3 has not been removed. It should be noted that the difference can be significant between the two data bases.

ATT rain data files for the United States are not distributed with the program. The directory geo_data\rain\rain_usa contains Canadian rain data files in the ATT file format. The file naming convention is CURVEXX.CSV where XX is a one or two digit number. If the USA files are located in this directory, then they will be automatically used for the Crane rain algorithm

Antenna Lookup Tables

Radome loss and antenna diameter have been added to the lookup table

Radio and antenna data lookup files could cause a program crash if an arbitrary file was loaded.

Ant_rad.exe - radio data files

If a binary radio data file was saved several times in a row, the calculated curves - TX emission mask, RX selectivity mask and the RX selectivity curver used in calculations would be duplicated.

Pathloss 5 - revision date May 19, 2009

Design Links - Network Display

This has been completely revised. The operation is similar to the Create PTP / PTMP links feature.

It is possible simply to view the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the network links using either the original design rules or the current design rules.

A group selection criteria is provided to move the links into different groups based on these KPIs.

Transmission line lengths on PTMP link designs have been corrected

Data integrity checks between PL5 files and the network display. When a pl5 file was saved, the network display data was automatically updated to the PL5 data. This has been changed. If differences between the two data sets are present, the user is prompted to select the correct data.

MapInfo grc files (one byte data files) were not read correctly. These files were being used as clutter data.

Pathloss 5 - revision date May 7, 2009

Create PTP and PTMP links

Clearance has been added as a rejection criteria. This is the clearance relative to the clearance criteria. A value of 0 means that the clearance criteria has been exactly met. A positive value is the excess clearance over the clearance criteria. A negative value is the additional clearance required to meet the clearance criteria.

A minimum and maximum value can be specified for each rejection criteria. In addition, the current link display can be saved to a group. This makes it possible to save the analysis into multiple groups. For example the group names could be as follows:

 clearance OK
 clearance within 10 meters
 clearance over 10 meters

The links can be saved with the original color legend.

Point to point equipment parameters now used the same standard data entry forms used in the transmission analysis section and include both lookup tables and the radio - antenna indexes.

Automatic Link Design

Diffraction loss is calculated at three values of K (4/3, the minimum expected value of K and a K of infinity). The infinity value was used in the transmission analysis under the assumption that heavy multipath fading is coincident with high values of K.

In this program build, the 4/3 value is used. Future program builds will expand on this and provide the probability of obstruction fading.

Lookup tables

Various data entry and conversion problems with antenna and radio data lookup tables were corrected dbm to microvolt conversion on the land mobile radio data entry form did not operate.

Pathloss 5 - revision date April 22, 2009

Multipath - reflection

Variable parameters calculations using ray tracing did not correctly save in the pl5 file.

Variable parameters calculations using ray tracing on paths which were blocked at the lowest value of the earth radius factor K could cause a program crash.

Transmission analysis

The vertical angle and azimuth were expressed as degrees minutes and seconds in report. The vertical angles were reported as positive values. These are now expressed as decimal degrees with the correct sign

The report format options for microwave total time below level showed the annual rain unavailability and the total annual rain + multipath unavailability in expressed in seconds. The actual report expresses the value in minutes. This provides compatibility with ITU conventions of expressing unavailability in minutes.

Loading a radio data file could could change several of the calculations options. These changes have been inhibited for the time being. The radio data files contain calculation methods such as selective outage and performance calculations in accordance with G826. A future release will prompt the user to make these changes and the changes will be immediately reflected in the radio data entry form.

FCC EIRP warnings were based on dBm instead of dBW

Vectors

A side effect of continuing development on shapefile features resulted in program crash when using vector shapefiles

Network display link list

If the link list was closed with the last row selected, the program would crash

Pathloss 5 - revision date March 26, 2009

Site list

Corrections made to the import/export CSV files operations.

Corrections made to column sorting.

Automatic link design

Antenna height greater than the tower height link rejection criteria has been added.

Tower heights have been added to the CSV report.

Finalize links did not correctly limit antenna heights to the tower heights

Diffraction module

Under some circumstances Fresnel zones could not be displayed.

Reports

This section is now under revision. The version 4 print profile report has been added.

Pathloss 5 - revision date March 10, 2009

Radio lookup tables can load version 4 microwave (mrd) and VHF-UHF (vrd) lookup files.

CSV Link reports have been added. They can be found under the Operations menu in the network display. The report can be customized by clicking the 'Edit' button and selecting CSV Link report from the dropdown list in the report settings window. (More report settings are available in the tree list on the left.)

Pathloss 5 - revision date February 24, 2009

Radio lookup tables

This has been added as an option to using the radio code index. If a code exists in the table, the, lookup table functions the same as the radio code index.

Other fixes

Loading pl4 files which contained Fresnel references became corrupted when saved as PL5 files.

Interference calculations for base stations without associated links has been implemented.

Pathloss 5 - revision date February 12, 2009

Base station sector frequency assignments

The TX channel table and frequency plan files are now used for frequency assignments.

Point to multipoint design

The base antenna height is not considered in the rejection criteria.

Google Earth kml export

General improvements to the overall display. Local and area studies are now exported as separate entities for each signal level.

Other fixes

Metric conversion problems - (feet and miles only).

Error in transmission line unit loss in ptmp link design corrected.

Error in tower heights corrected.