EDX Wireless Expands SignalPro Planning Tool

EDX Wireless, a leading provider of RF planning tools, announced the release of EDX® SignalPro® v7.4.2 This maintenance release of SignalPro also contains many new feature and capabilities, all available as an in line upgrade for the entire EDX SignalPro family products.

“Version 7.4.2 of SignalPro is the second release this year and delivers significant new functionality to our existing and new customers", said Steve Webster, Director of Product Management at EDX.. “We are particularly pleased to be able to offer such a significantly expanded range of options for the Smart Grid and Public Safety markets so quickly after the last release, meeting our customers evolving needs and requests.”

Among many new capabilities, SignalPro V7.4.2 contains many improvements to the overall workflow and usability of the application. New helpful features have been added to streamline complex processes which are now easily accessible with a quick context sensitive menu.

In particular, Multipoint Studies have been redesigned to greatly simplify operation and allow rapid creation of basic multipoint studies when the Network Design Module is installed without compromising the full flexibility of the Multipoint planning utility. This new ‘Basic” option limits the possible studies to those which do not involve channel planning or interference calculations, allowing basic forward and reverse multipoint basic link calculations to be run without having to assign channels to the links first.

Other new features include an Automatic Frequency Planning Assignment Mode (available for SignalPro + Network Design Module only), which will automatically assign CPE channels based on the Assigned Server’s channels.

Version 7.4.2 also contains greatly expanded import/export capabilities including MIF/MID export, geographic contour export to Google Earth (Quick Contours, Interference Contour Study, and Area Study FCC type) and cell site import from Google Earth KML files through the spreadsheet editor. Public Safety, Land Mobile, Broadcast and other services that rely on this type of signal coverage method for FCC licensing and proposals can now present their results both within the EDX planning tool as well as within the popular Google Earth maps format.

Similar major updates and upgrades to Smart Grid Large Scale Mesh Studies analysis have been added to the SignalMX Module. These represent significant advances in automation and simplified planning of Repeaters in advanced, Large Scale mesh designs. Features include custom propagation calculation options for repeater links physical models that incorporate terrain as well as land-use (clutter) databases and options to use area or link based propagation
studies Additionally, Smart Grid repeaters can now be categorized as various types, including base repeaters (coverage extenders for Routers/Collectors) or bridge repeaters (used to connect isolated clusters of meters) and additional studies and features have been added to allow the user to quickly and efficiently incorporate repeaters into a Smart Grid system design.

This optimized and automatic Repeater selection calculation uses repeaters only after all potential meter paths fail. Multiple calculation options are also now supported allowing the user to adjust the mesh calculations for both the type of system being planned and the level of precision required. Options include placing "capacitated out" meters at the edge of a router's area coverage or closest to the router (for ease of visualization during the planning stage).

Source: www.edx.com