Visually Improved Understanding of Three-Dimensionally Propagating Electromagnetic Fields in Wireless Networks

Visualizations are highly valuable in improving the un-derstanding, as well as the analysis of a variety of physi-cal phenomena. Two such applications can be as a peda-gogical tool for enhanced perception of complex topics, or as an everyday aid that helps engineers interpret the out-come of simulations. In this paper we try to meet both these objectives and propose a novel approach to three-dimensionally visualize time-varying electromagnetic fields and show how this can be applied to improve the under-standing of propagating radio waves used in wireless com-munication networks. To obtain this, we use a numerical version of Maxwell’s equations to create snapshots of a propagating electromagnetic field. In this manner we are able to not only, intuitively get a better general understand-ing of radio waves, but also disclose important phenomena such as diffraction, reflection, attenuation and multipath be-havior. 1