Indoor Radio Planning: A Practical Guide for GSM, DCS, UMTS, HSPA and LTE, Second Edition

9.7 The Advanced Toolkit (RF-vu from iBwave.com)

There are many types of tools for the various processes with regards to indoor radio planning. In many cases you end up with separate tools for each task: one tool for drawing the diagram, one tool for the link budget, one tool for calculating the losses and powers at the antennas, one tool for inter-modulation calculations, one tool to produce equipment lists, etc. It can be challenging to handle all the different input and outputs of data from these tools so that you are sure that each tool is updated with accurate project data. However there is one tool that combines all the aspects of the indoor design process into one (the tool I use on a daily basis). This is not a sales pitch for that specific tool, but I am sure you will find the software very useful and cost-saving if you do indoor radio planning on a frequent base.

9.7.1 Save Time, Keep Costs and Mistakes to a Minimum

This tool is not only easy to use, but it saves a lot of planning costs, and keeps mistakes to a minimum, because all data is linked, so if you update a component on the diagram, the floor plan, simulation and equipment lists are updated simultaneously.

9.7.2 Import Floor Plans

You can easily import any standard type of floor plan, e.g. *.gif, *.jpeg, *.pdf, and even AutoCAD. When you have imported the floor plan, you scale it to match the actual size of the building (as shown in Figure 9.2). All floor plan can be aligned together in order to have a perfect ...