What’s New in iBwave Design Release 12

Doesn’t it seem like forever since we first heard about 4G? It feels like the technology has been around for centuries. And even though it’s only been a decade since 4G was first rolled out, that’s a lifetime in the wireless industry. People have been anticipating the next step of evolution in wireless connectivity for a long time.

Well, it’s finally here.

iBwave Design Release 12 brings 5G NR design capabilities to the in-building wireless table – and a standardized method to tackling this new wireless technology.

Here’s a look at what iBwave Design R12 includes:

5G Design Capabilities

mmWave Bands

New in iBwave Design R12 is support to design your wireless systems for new mmWave bands: 26GHz, 28GHz, 31GHz, 39GHz, as well sub 6GHz bands. Check out this 5G antenna pattern.

5G NR Output Maps

Validate the quality of coverage for dense broadband connectivity with new SS-RSRP and SS-SNIR 5G output maps, as well as MADR and SNIR-PDSCH maps for 5G.

5G Prediction

Enable 5G RF prediction and validation with mmWave and Sub 6ghz spectrums (Propagation Module)

Advanced Analysis for 5G Antenna Placement

Optimize 5G antenna placement with consideration for potential surrounding interferences (Optimization Module).

5G Database Components

You’ll also have access to new 5G components in our database to help kick start your next generation of 5G designs.

Not only does iBwave Design 12 offer 5G capability, it also comes with DAS component modeling improvements that make modeling 10 times faster with service grouping templates.

3D Modeling Enhancements

Diagonal Drawing

Easily design square sections of a building at an angle with the new diagonal drawing tool. You can now more efficiently model odd-shaped buildings as well as add a reference angle to be able to measure and relate antenna azimuth.

“My favourite new feature in iBwave R12 is diagonal drawing because it allows me to quickly and accurately draw walls not at 90 degree angles – no more guess work. Projects are now completed and ready for the engineer at a quicker rate than previous versions.”
— RF Engineer, iBwave User

Curved Walls

Benefit from significant time savings with the ability to design curved walls (especially useful for stadium modeling) making your 3D model that much more accurate to real-life and as a result, your predictions also more accurate.

Stop Walls at Incline

R12 brings simplified wall drawing under inclined surfaces – you now have the ability to easily draw walls and adjust their height against inclined surfaces, making your model and predictions more accurate.

DAS Component Modeling Improvements

Service grouping templates is a new feature that allows you to create automated groups for your DAS components. Rather than manually enter each of your connections by service, create a service grouping template to automate the process and save loads of time.

To see the full list of new features, check out our What’s New page.

New Feature! Quick Connection Tool

In the newest release of iBwave Wi-Fi a new feature was introduced called the ‘Quick Connection Tool’. And if you often do the cabling in your designs, this is a feature you’re going to appreciate.

What does it do?

It completely automates the cabling of your sources to your APs, enabling you to cable your designs in just seconds whereas before it could take up to an hour or more, depending on the size and complexity of the venue you are working with. For many of our customers, this is a new feature that offers big time savings.

Here’s how it works.

Using the example floor plan of an office space, we can see the placement of the source (switch), the access points, and cable trays (purple lines) on the floor plan.

Note: quick connection tool can be used with or without the cable route defined already, in this case I have placed cable trays which the tool will use to automatically route the cables.

From here, it’s quite simple – simply click on the ‘Quick Connect Tool’ icon from the menu, which presents you with this screen:

Next, you need to do a few things to tell the tool how to connect.

Select your source (in this case the switch)
Select the APs to connect to
Select the cable trays through which the cables should connect (optional)
Select the cable from the smart list of acceptable cables (i.e the software will suggest cables based on your source/APs)

Here is what it looks like…

And voila, you now have your sources/destinations connected – from here you can simply run a Bill of Materials or Cost Details to get a report/estimate of your network design parts.

R9 Sneak Peek: 3D Antenna Patterns #ComingSoon

One of the most recognizable features of any iBwave network design software is the 3D modeling capabilities within it. And while the 3D aspect of the software looks great and helps many of our customers to impress their own customers in the bid process, the 3D modeling capabilities are about much more than just looking impressive. It’s part of our dedication to providing our customers with the best software to accurately predict network performance.

Which is why in our upcoming release of iBwave Design 9, we’ve taken our 3D capabilities to yet another level with 3D antenna pattern modeling.

Why is the impact of this new feature and why does it matter?

Simply put, 3D antenna patterns will allow users to model antenna coverage more precisely and accurately – especially when it comes to large directional stadium antennas. This is because the large directional antennas have very precise beams that ensure separation between sectors – which is very important due to the interference which can occur between sectors that can degrade the signal quality of the antenna.

So when such an antenna is modeled using a 2D antenna pattern, the software will simply interpolate the 3D pattern using the 2 slices of the 2D pattern. By doing this, most of the time the side lobes are not well modeled which in the end can impact the prediction accuracy in some regions of the coverage area. In many cases, this can lead to the antenna showing good results during prediction – when in reality there is more interference than showing, and the network will not perform as well as predicted.

With the introduction of 3D antenna patterns coming out in our next release, each antenna will be perfectly modeled in all directions based on lab measurements and manufacturer specifications. As a result, the prediction results in iBwave Design for designs using these large directional antennas will be even more accurate than previously – especially on the sides of the antenna where side lobes will degrade quality.

Here is an example of a 3D antenna pattern in the upcoming iBwave Design 9 – note the 3D side lobes.

And while the 3D antenna pattern modeling will be available for all antennas, typically for omni antennas such as the one below, our interpolation from a 2D pattern will be very close to what you would get with a 3D pattern – so because it is already so accurate, 3D patterns for such antennas will not be necessary.

Exciting news, right? We think so! Watch for this new feature in iBwave Design coming out at the end of September.

Do you currently use iBwave Design for stadium designs? Will you find this new feature useful once it’s launched?

Wirelessly yours, in 3D,

Kelly