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First Steps
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AWE Communications was founded in 1998
as a spin off from the Institute of Radio Frequency Technology at the University of Stuttgart.
Since 1998, the main focus of AWE Communications was the development
of software tools for the planning and analysis of wireless and mobile
communication networks.
Together with many partners, AWE
Communications developed innovative and flexible software tools. WinProp,
the software suite of AWE Communications is today a standard software
in the world of wireless propagation and radio network planning. During the last years various new and innovative
features were added to WinProp. If you are interested in the evolution
of WinProp, you should contact us to get a
roadmap of our software development activities.
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Important Milestones
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The feedback of the customers of AWE Communications during the
last years helped to improve the products
continuously. Many inventions of AWE Communications influenced the
world of propagation and network analysis significantly and are today
state-of-the-art for all commercial network planning tools.
Among them were:
- 1998
AWE Communications is founded
3D Ray Tracing with preprocessing of the database for urban scenarios => Urban 3D IRT
For the first time, 3D Ray Tracing is possible for larger areas
within a few seconds on a standard PC.
- 1999
Extension of 3D Ray Tracing with preprocessing of the database to indoor
scenarios => Indoor 3D IRT.
The high speed 3D Ray Tracing is now available also for indoor
scenarios.
AWE gets the best paper
award at the IEEE PIMRC conference
in Japan for the 3D IRT.
- 2000
With the dynamic UMTS network
simulator, AWE Communications makes its first step into the world
of
system simulation and network planning software. Due to the flexible
and
fast simulator, AWE Communications is able to sell the new network
products
successfully and to establish a second business division besides the
propagation
domain.
WinProp is presented as innovative software tool for wavepropagation on
the AP2000.
- 2001
Combined Network
Planning (CNP): For the first time it is possible to combine urban
and indoor databases to compute the penetration into buildings
or to analyze transmitters located inside buildings and their
interaction
(incl. interference) with the outdoor network. Detailed indoor databases can be combined
with large urban databases to
one propagation scenario. This approach is still not
reached by any other commercial software product.
Nokia
asks AWE Communications to integrate the 3D Urban IRT into Aircom
ENTERPRISE.
- 2002
Localization
of mobile stations in cellular networks is a very hot topic in 2002 due
to the FCC regulations for the US market. AWE Communications and Siemens present an
extension of WinProp for the determination of the accuracy of different
positioning algorithms.
Together with the partner T-Mobile, AWE
Communications starts a new series of EMC
workshops to inform the public about health issues in combination
with the radiation of electromagnetic waves (from cellular base
stations). The workshops
are offered nationwide and a huge interest leads to many presentations
all over Germany during the next years.
Alcatel
asks AWE Communications to integrate the 3D Urban IRT into ATOLL/A9155.
Presentation of joint research activities in the field of urban wave propagation with partner Nokia Reserach Center at IEEE VTC 2002 in Vancouver, BC.
- 2003
AWE Communications expands again and therefore moves with its R&D
team to the new location in Böblingen,
Germany.
Release of the HSDPA
module for the dynamic UMTS FDD
simulator. Simulation of packet switched traffic is now possible
(dynamically
generated IP packets, configuration by the user) - for UMTS-HSDPA and for
DCH in UMTS FDD.
At the COST conference in Barcelona, AWE Communications offers a tutorial about "Wave Propagation
and Radio Network Planning".
- 2004
Presentation of the Dominant Path
Prediction Model: For the first time the same propagation model can
be used for rural, urban, and indoor scenarios.
Additionally, the model is extremely fast, highly accurate and needs no
preprocessing of the database. This is a step into a new world of
propagation modeling - almost without any limitations.
The public funded project
MAESTRO is launched (funded by European Union in IST/FP6). 19
partners of the wireless industry are working together with AWE
Communications till 2007 on the development of 3G satellite multimedia
broadcasting systems like SDMB.
With the S-DMB network simulator
AWE Communications enters into the domain of satellite and hybrid
(satellite & terrestrial) network analysis. Propagation models for
satellite
communication links are implemented as well as a system simulator to
superpose
satellite and terrestrial signals. The simulator together with the
research
activities in the new satellite branch of AWE was presented to the
public
at the EMPS & ASMS 2004
in
Amsterdam.
CNP
(Combined Network Planning)
extension for Dominant Path Prediction Model is presented at IST Mobile Summit in Dresden, Germany.
Time variant
activities
started.
Radio channel (directional and time variant) predictions for in-vehicle
communications
as well as radio links around vehicles
in
time variant scenarios.
Research
contract with CNES
signed to develop the OFDM extension of the SDMB radio network planning tool.
UMTS TDD system
imulator is now able to model PS traffic (in dynamic system simulation
mode).
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