range

Range of radio wave propagation

Syntax

r = range(propmodel,tx,pl)

Description

r = range(propmodel,tx,pl) returns the range of radio wave propagation from the transmitter site.

Examples

Range of Transmitter In Heavy Rain

Specify transmitter and receiver sites.

tx = txsite('Name','MathWorks Apple Hill',...
       'Latitude',42.3001, ...
       'Longitude',-71.3504, ...
       'TransmitterFrequency', 2.5e9);
 
rx = rxsite('Name','Fenway Park',...
       'Latitude',42.3467, ...
       'Longitude',-71.0972);

Create the propagation model for heavy rainfall rate.

pm = propagationModel('rain','RainRate',50)

pm = 
  Rain with properties:

    RainRate: 50
        Tilt: 0

Calculate the range of transmitter using the rain propagation model and a path loss of 127 dB.

r = range(pm,tx,127)

r = 
2.0747e+04

Input Arguments

propmodel — Propagation model

FreeSpace object | Rain object | Gas object | Fog object | CloseIn object | LongleyRice object | TIREM object | RayTracing object | ...

Propagation model, specified as one of these objects:

• FreeSpace object — Free space propagation model

• Rain object — Rain propagation model

• Gas object — Gas propagation model

• Fog object — Fog propagation model

• CloseIn object — Close-in propagation model

• LongleyRice object — Longley-Rice propagation model

• TIREM (Antenna Toolbox) object — TIREM™ propagation model

• RayTracing object — Ray tracing propagation model

• CompositePropagationModel object — Composite propagation model. Create a composite propagation model from individual propagation models by using the add function. For information about the types of propagation models that can be combined, see Choose a Propagation Model.

Create propagation models by using the propagationModel function.

tx — Transmitter site

txsite object | array of txsite objects

Transmitter site, specified as a txsite object or an array of txsite objects.

pl — Path loss in dB

scalar

Path loss in dB, specified as a scalar.

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

r — Range in meters

scalar | M-by-1 array

Range in meters, returned as a scalar or M-by-1 array. M is the number of transmitter sites.

The range is the maximum distance for which the path loss does not exceed the value of the specified path loss.

References

[1] "IEEE Standard Definitions of Terms for Antennas." IEEE Std 145-2013 (Revision of IEEE Std 145-1993), March 2014, 1–50. https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEESTD.2014.6758443.

Version History

Introduced in R2019b

R2026a: Ray tracing functions use improved polarization algorithm

Ray tracing functions calculate path loss and phase shift using the polarization convention described by IEEE^® Standard 145-2013 [1], such that MATLAB^® expects the polarization of the receiver antenna to be defined as if it were transmitting.

As a result of this change, when used with polarized antennas, the range function can return different values in R2026a compared to previous releases.

R2026a: Propagation models that combine rain and ray tracing use improved algorithm

Propagation models that combine Rain objects and RayTracing objects use an improved algorithm, where the model calculates propagation loss from rain for each ray path segment.

As a result of this change, the range function can return different values in R2026a compared to previous releases.