MATLAB/Octave Implementation of Recommendation ITU-R P.1546

This code repository contains a MATLAB/Octave software implementation of Recommendation ITU-R P.1546-6 with a method for point-to-area predictions for terrestrial services in the frequency range 30 MHz to 4000 MHz.

This version of the code corresponds to the reference version approved by ITU-R Working Party 3K and published on ITU-R SG 3 Software, Data, and Validation Web Page as digital supplement to Recommendation ITU-R P.1546.

The following table describes the structure of the folder ./matlab/ containing the MATLAB/Octave implementation of Recommendation ITU-R P.1546.

File/Folder	Description
P1546FieldStrMixed.m	MATLAB function implementing Recommendation ITU-R P.1546-6
validateP1546.m	MATLAB script used to validate the implementation of Recommendation ITU-R P.1546-6 in P1546FieldStrMixed.m
./validation_profiles/	Folder containing a proposed set of terrain profiles and inputs for validation of MATLAB implementation (or any other software implementation) of this Recommendation
./validation_results/	Folder containing all the results written during the transmission loss computations for the set of terrain profiles defined in the folder ./validation_profiles/
./private/	Folder containing the functions used by validateP1546.m to read the test terrain profiles and compute all the parameters required as arguments of the function P1546FieldStrMixed

Function Call

The function P1546FieldStrMixed can be called

1. by invoking only the required input arguments:

[Ep, Lb] = P1546FieldStrMixed(f, t, heff, h2, R2, area, d_v, path_c, pathinfo);

2. by invoking additional optional arguments using Name-Value Pair Arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside quotes. You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN:

[Ep, Lb] = P1546FieldStrMixed(f, t, heff, h2, R2, area, d_v, path_c, pathinfo, ...
                            'q', 50, 'wa', 27, 'Ptx', 1, 'ha', 100);

Required input arguments of function P1546FieldStrMixed

Variable	Type	Units	Limits	Description
f	scalar double	MHz	30 ≤ f ≤ 4000	Frequency
t	scalar double	%	1 ≤ p ≤ 50	Time percentage for which the calculated basic transmission loss is not exceeded
heff	scalar double	m		Effective height of the transmitting/base antenna, height over the average level of the ground between distances of 3 and 15 km from the transmitting/base antenna in the direction of the receiving/mobile antenna.
h2	scalar double	m		Receiving/mobile antenna height above ground level
R2	scalar double	m		Representative clutter height around receiver. Typical values: R2=10 for area='Rural' or 'Suburban' or 'Sea', R2=15 for area='Urban', R2=20 for area='Dense Urban'
area	string		'Land, 'Sea', 'Warm', 'Cald'	Area around the receiver.
d_v	array double	km	sum(d_v) ≤ ~1000	Array of horizontal path lengths over different path zones starting from transmitter/base station terminal.
path_c	cell string		'Land', 'Sea', 'Warm', 'Cold'	Cell of strings defining the path zone for each given path lenght in d_v starting from the transmitter/base terminal.
pathinfo	scalar int		0, 1	0 - no terrain profile information available, 1 - terrain information available

Optional input arguments of function P1546FieldStrMixed

Variable	Type	Units	Limits	Description
q	scalar double	%	1 ≤ q ≤ 99	Location percentage for which the calculated basic transmission loss is not exceeded. Default is 50%.
wa	scalar double	m	~50 ≤ wa ≤ ~1000	The width of the square area over which the variabilitiy applies. Needs to be defined only if pathinfo= 1 and q ≠ 50. Default: 0 dB.
Ptx	scalar double	kW	Ptx > 0	Tx power; Default: 1.
ha	scalar double	m		Transmitter antenna height above ground. Defined in Annex 5 §3.1.1. Limits are defined in Annex 5 §3.
hb	scalar double	m		Height of transmitter/base antenna above terrain height averaged over 0.2d and d, when d is less than 15 km and where terrain information is available.
R1	scalar double	m		Representative clutter height around transmitter.
tca	scalar double	deg	0.55 ≤ tca ≤ 40	Terrain clearance angle.
htter	scalar double	m		Terrain height in meters above sea level at the transmitter/base.
hrter	scalar double	m		Terrain height in meters above sea level at the receiver/mobile.
eff1	scalar double	deg		The h1 terminal's terrain clearance angle calculated using the method in §4.3 case a), whether or not h1 is negative.
eff2	scalar double	deg		The h2 terminal's terrain clearance angle calculated using the method in §11, noting that this is the elevation angle relative to the local horizontal.
debug	scalar int		0, 1	If debug= 1, the results are written in log files. Default: 0.
fidlog	scalar int		Only used if debug= 1	File identifier of the log file opened for writing outside the function. If not provided, a default file with a filename containing a timestamp will be created.

Outputs

Variable	Type	Units	Description
Ep	double	dB(uV/m)	Electric field strength
Lb	double	dB	Basic transmission loss

Notes

Notes: If sea path is selected for a t value less then 50% the default 10% table use is a cold sea path.

Not implemented in this version of the code:

• Annex 7: Adjustment for different climatic regions
• Annex 5, Section 4.3a): C_h1 calculation (terrain database is available and the potential of discontinuities around h1 = 0 is of no concern)

Software Versions

The code was tested and runs on:

• MATLAB versions 2017a and 2020a
• Octave version 6.1.0

References

• Recommendation ITU-R P.1546

• ITU-R SG 3 Software, Data, and Validation Web Page