A comparison of the accuracy of propagation models using hit rate analysis

Abstract

A new way of gauging the accuracy of radiowave propagation models is presented. The prediction models used are the parabolic equation (PE) and a new slope-uniform theory of diffraction (slope-UTD). The results from these models applied to a terrain database are compared to experimental data from the University of Aalborg, Denmark. This comparison is enabled by using newly defined hit rate metrics. Hit rate metrics are obtained by comparing the predicted and measured availability on a point-by-point basis at a given path loss threshold. The hit rate metric is complementary to first order statistics such as mean and standard deviation of error, in determining the accuracy of a model.