A BODY-SHADOWING MODEL FOR INDOOR RADIO-COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENTS

Deterministic propagation prediction methods proposed for indoor radio are useful for estimating the average propagation loss in real enviro nments, which usually have complicated geometries. On the other hand, these methods generally fail to accommodate human body shadowing, whic h is a significant propagation effect in indoor picocells. Several emp irical models to describe body shadowing have been reported. However, to our knowledge, no appropriate model that can be used in combination with deterministic propagation prediction methods has been provided i n the literature. In this paper, a new practical model is introduced, which provides a way to estimate body-shadowing effects deterministica lly with the existing ray-determination methods. The detailed procedur e to combine our body-shadowing model with the ray-determination metho ds is described. Several examples are shown applying the procedure to a simple office layout.