Complete Simulation of an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Network using a Full Wave Electromagnetic Tool Dynamically Coupled to a RF System Simulator

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to fully evaluate a short range IEEE 802.11g channel at 2.4 GHz frequency by dynamic linking Ansys HFSS, a full wave electromagnet tool, and Ansys Designer, a system level design simulator. The study presented in paper shows the integration of a 3D field solver and a circuit solver that enables the calculation of radiation patterns, electric field plots, bit error rate, constellation plots while incorporates the actual transmitter and receiver antennas and devices as well as TX/RX system with numerous modulation schemes. Multipath effects are also considered because the entire physical environment is modeled. Frequency and time domain responses are seamlessly combined in order to yield a complete response of the entire system. The scenario of the WiFi network is a room comprised of a router, a notebook and a phone. The concepts shown in this paper can be applied to Zigbee, Bluetooth, WiMax and many other wireless network types.