The Path Profile Analysis (PPA) tool in CloudRF shows a horizontal visualization of the point to point (P2P) path the signal takes from a single transmitter to a single receiver along with a complete terrain profile in between those two marker points. This feature is useful to identify obstructions along a given path.
- Accessing Path Profile Analysis
- Path Profile Overview
- Path Profile Side View
- Path Profile Text Report
Accessing Path Profile Analysis
To access the Path Profile Analysis tool, simply click on the double arrow icon in the center bottom of the web interface:
If for some reason the path profile side view display does not appear below your map, you may have chosen a transmitter frequency (in the Transmitter Panel) that is outside the range of your currently selected model (in the Model Panel).
Path Profile Overview
When you click on that Path Profile icon [1], a receiver icon [2] will be placed due east of the current location of your transmitter icon [3]. You may need to zoom out to see the connection if your transmitter icon was not visible on your map. The transmitter and receiver points will be connected with a blue line [4]. You will also see the Path Profile Analysis display appear below the map [5], and the Path Profile text report will appear in the top right corner:
You can click and drag either the transmitter [1] or receiver markers [2] to suit your analysis needs. Keep in mind the analysis results are going to draw from all the information you have entered into the primary panels in the web interface. If you want to reverse the direction of the analysis, simply swap the markers.
Path Profile Analysis Side View
No matter the location of the transmitter and receiver on the map, the Path Profile Analysis will always position the transmitter to the left and the receiver to the right.
The top line in the Path Profile side view [1] shows you all the spatial relationship details derived from your transmitter and receiver geographic locations and elevations including distance, bearing, and downtilt.
The second line [2] displays the transmitter frequency and propagation model currently selected along with the derived path loss, received power and field strength.
And finally you can also see the Tx antenna gain, ERP, EIRP, and Rx antenna gain [3] just above the visualization.
Within the visualization itself, you will see a legend [4] with the coordinates and elevation for both the transmitter [5] and the receiver [6]:
The path profile analysis is interactive. By default, the compare data on hover option is selected [1] so when you hover your cursor you'll see various height values above sea level for the given distance including line-of-sight [2], Fresnel zone [3], terrain profile [4]. And the distance itself can be seen below [5]. You can change the hover function to show the closest data on hover [6]. You are also able to save the chart as a PNG [7], Edit the chart in Plotly [8], or perform a number of other zoom and pan functions [9]:
Changing the values in your primary panels to the left side of the web interface will change your path profile analysis results, but if you have a path profile analysis currently displayed the changes won't appear automatically. You can affect a refresh of the path profile analysis after making transmitter, antenna, receiver, model, or output changes by moving either the transmitter or receiver icon on the map.
Path Profile Text Report
The Path Profile Text Report is a way to capture all the same data shown in the visual side view but in an encoded text-based format.
You can close the text report by clicking on the circle with a line through it at the top. To regenerate a text report, simply relocate one of the two path markers on the map.
And as always, if you have any comments or questions please reach out to us at support@cloudrf.com.