METHOD FOR THE PREDICTION OF COVERAGE AREAS OF A CELLULAR NETWORK

A method (200,300,600) is proposed for predicting coverage area of a radiocommunications network including a plurality of network cells distributed over a geographic area. The method includes calculating (205,305,605,210-225) by simulation an irradiated electromagnetic field irradiated by a radio base station of the network in a plurality of measure locations within the geographic area corresponding to respective expected positions of a user terminal. Said calculating (205,305,605,210-225) comprises, for each of said measure locations, calculating a basic transmission curve (205a) indicative of a basic attenuation of a radioelectric signal strength in the measure location, associating (205b,205c,305c,605c) to the basic transmission curve at least one correction factor for refining the radioelectric signal strength basic attenuation by taking account of shielding effects on the radioelectric signal strength due to obstacles to the propagation of the radioelectric signal. In the solution according to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the phase of associating (205b,205c,305c,605c) to the basic transmission curve at least one correction factor includes calculating (305b, 605b) for a measure elementary area which the measure location is associated thereto at least one equivalent volume parameter indicative of an equivalent volume of said obstacles taking into account a plurality of neighbor elementary areas in a prescribed neighborhood relationship to the measure elementary area, and calculating (305c,605c) an equivalent volume correction factor by associating each one of the at least one equivalent volume parameter to a corresponding parametric curve expressing the signal attenuation as a function of the respective at least one equivalent volume parameter. La présente invention se rapporte à un procédé (200, 300, 600) adapté pour prédire une zone de couverture d'un réseau de communications radio comprenant une pluralité de cellules de réseau distribuée sur une zone géographique donnée. Le procédé selon l'invention consiste : à calculer (205, 305, 605, 210 à 225), via une simulation, un champ électromagnétique irradié, qui est irradié par une station de base radio du réseau dans une pluralité de positions de mesure à l'intérieur de la zone géographique, la pluralité de positions de mesure correspondant à des positions respectives attendues d'un terminal d'utilisateur. Ladite phase de calcul (205, 305, 605, 210 à 225) consiste, pour chacune desdi