Remcom announced a new version of Wireless InSite® 3D Wireless Prediction Software with propagation analysis for engineered electromagnetic surfaces, allowing modeling of passive metasurfaces designed to optimize wireless communication coverage by manipulating how signals propagate through a scene. Combined with other MIMO improvements, engineers can more effectively characterize propagation channels for MIMO systems operating in modified RF environments for 5G, 6G and wireless protocols like Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband (UWB) for indoor or outdoor use cases.
The ability to control the EM propagation environment is currently an important area of 6G research. Applications such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) rely on either metasurfaces or reflect arrays, an alternative technology, to optimize wireless channels. Engineered electromagnetic surfaces (EES) are a class of passive metasurfaces that artificially enhance wireless coverage at microwave and mmWave frequencies via printed conductive patterns on substrates such as plastic or glass. When placed on a wall, window or other structure, the scattering properties of these printed patterns redirect RF wave propagation in specific directions to augment wireless connectivity. The new EES capability provides a way to analyze improvements to coverage from either a static EES or a single configuration of a metasurface-based RIS.
Wireless InSite’s X3D Model has been extended to incorporate the Ray-Optical EES Scattering Model developed by the Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC), part of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. This model provides a uniform ray description of electromagnetic wave scattering by locally periodic metasurfaces. The integration of the EES Scattering Model and Wireless InSite enables ray-based EM propagation prediction of reflections, transmissions, and diffractions that do not obey conventional geometric constraints such as Snell’s law in complex multipath environments, including office buildings and urban areas equipped with metasurfaces.
Ruth Belmonte, project manager for Remcom’s Wireless InSite product and the EES development project, said, “EES technology creates exciting possibilities for solving propagation challenges as frequencies move into millimeter-wave bands. The integration of Remcom and CRC’s models offers a novel way to simulate and analyze the channel characteristics of passive EM metasurfaces in any environment, including indoor, outdoor, outdoor to indoor and others.”
Other new features in the release are aimed at improving 5G and Wi-Fi performance by increasing accuracy for MIMO device design and assessment. Support for multi-port S-parameters provides more realistic results by capturing the degradation due to mutual coupling between MIMO antenna elements. New MIMO features, namely the addition of receiver codebooks and extensions to MIMO spatial multiplexing, continue to improve and enhance support for new wireless systems. In addition, direct import of multi-frequency antenna patterns simplifies the simulation of more realistic devices, allowing for broadband or multi-band analysis.