Leaflet.Antenna

A leaflet plugin for displaying antenna sites and coverage.

Demo

Basic antenna site

The display of the antenna coverage in this example might take a while depending on the system, because the used external library for calculating the height is unoptimized for this case.

Motivation

Before Leaflet.Antenna, when configuring antenna networks users had to rely in proprietary software or services which limited the functionality to certain antennas or exposed their planned antenna configuration. Networks should be built and controlled by the people who use them, with tools that are freely available, without profiting off the necessity to communicate.

Usage example

All core functions for calculating the antenna coverage are in Leaflet.Antenna.js , Leaflet.Antenna.Files.js has extra functions for handling files and collecting the antenna specifications and position needed for the calculations.

Leaflet.Antenna.js:

calcRadPatternWithObstacles(antCords, antPointDir, antInstallHeight, antProfile)

Calculates antenna coverage of the given transmitting antenna relative to a equally specified receiving antenna and obstacles and returns all covered points seperated in three groups of signal quality (good,okay,bad).

Leaflet.Antenna.Files.js:

drawRadiationPattern(radiationPoints, map)

Draws antenna radiation pattern on the given map using the libraries QuadTree.js and L.GridLayer.MaskCanvas.js Other libraries can be used to display the points of coverage

addGeoJSONToMap('map_example.geojson', map);

Parses the .geojson file and draws markers and geometries from feature collection on the map

parseNetworkJSONFile('network_example_simple.json', map);

Parses the .json network file and draws antenna links and coverage for each antenna on the map

Example network configuration file: (without comments when used)

{
  "antenna_sites": [
    {
      "site_name": "site1",                   //must be the same value as the name property of a map marker where the antenna pattern is later drawn 
      "installed_antennas": [                 //see name property in map_example.geojson
        {
          "antenna_name": "site1_antenna1",   //name which is later used for links
          "point_dir": 225,                   //in degrees (facing north equals 0°,increasing clock-wise)
          "install_height": 15,               //meters above terrain 
          "antenna_profile": "Brand-AP-Gen2"  //must be the same value as a profile_name from antenna_profiles 
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "site_name": "site2",                   //configuration can have multiple sites
      "installed_antennas": [                 //sites can have multiple antennas
        {
          "antenna_name": "site2_antenna1",
          "point_dir": 45,
          "install_height": 15,
          "antenna_profile": "Brand-AP-Gen2"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "antenna_profiles": [                 
    {
      "profile_name": "Brand-AP-Gen2",  
      "output_power": 27,               //in dBw
      "gain": 19,                       //in dBi
      "sensitivity": 85,                //in dBw
      "ant_file": "Brand-AP-Gen2.ant",  //directory to .ant file
      "frequency": 2.4                  //in GHz
    }
  ],
  "antenna_links": [ //links are bidirectional
    {
      "antenna_from": "site1_antenna1", //must be the same value as a antenna_name from installed_antennas under antenna_sites
      "antenna_to": "site2_antenna1"
    }
  ]
}

Dependencies / Used Leaflet Plugins

The core functionality in Leaflet.Antenna.js doesn't depend on external libraries (other than leaflet.js) and all functions used in Leaflet.Antenna.Files.js could therefore be replaced.

Leaflet.Antenna.Files.js:

The function getElevation requires a tileLayer L.tileLayer.colorPicker from the leaflet plugin leaflet-tilelayer-colorpicker to get the elevation at any point by using the function getColor of that tile layer.

The function drawRadiationPattern requires a tileLayer L.TileLayer.maskCanvas from the leaflet plugin leaflet-maskcanvas to draw the coverage on the tile layers, which are created in the function.

TODO

• increase calculation speed of the radiation patterns
• eventually change the configuration file format to a format which supports comments if needed (probably JSON5)