3D Building Modeling is the process of editing and generating detailed three dimensional building models. This process is vital for accurate in-building radio network planning and optimisation. 3D building models are not only used for network designing and visualization, but also to be used by the 3D propagation models for system performance predictions. For these purposes, both the building infrastructure and materials have to be defined as much detailed as possible. However, it is time-consuming to obtain such well defined building models, in particular for radio network designers, who are not skilled in construct engineering. Therefore, software aided 3D building modeling methods are keen by the radio network designers. iBuildNet can achieve such functions. In this world leading in-building radio network planning tool suite, 3D buildings can be modeled by various methods, including importing from two dimensional floor plans (like AutoCAD files), free style drawing in 2D mode and importing from other 3D building models.
Not only the building structure, but also the materials used in the construction of a building plays an extremely important role in the propagation of indoor radio signals. Different materials can have wildly different effects on the transmission, reflection and diffractions of radio waves. iBuildNet replicates the effects of these different materials on the transmissions, reflections and diffractions within its hybrid ray-tracing/launching propagation model. For the model to operate successfully, it is critical to make sure the characteristics of the materials used in the building plan analysis are defined as closely as possible to the actual building materials where the radio network will be deployed. iBuildNet provides a general material database, which includes many basic materials and their properties. Should the exact materials needed not exist in the material database then the users can either add new materials to the database or modify existing ones as required.