SoftWright is pleased to announce the release of the accelerated Bullington Propagation Module for Terrain Analysis Package (TAP™) version 6.2. TAP™ 6.2 features an all-new calculation engine that drastically improves execution speed. Similar to previous results for the accelerated Longley-Rice module, study execution times in benchmark cases were reduced by 80% – combining TAP™ 6.2 with solid state drive data storage reduced study times by 98%. This is great news for customers interested in reducing the time it takes to complete large, high-resolution coverage studies.
As a terrestrial RF propagation software tool, TAP™ is data- and computation-intensive. It has been common for large area coverage studies using high-resolution data to require hours of execution time. However, TAP™ 6.2 is the first release in the next generation of TAP™ software that uses an all-new calculation engine to dramatically decrease study execution time.
This secondary release features our Bullington Propagation Model. The Bullington Model is a knife-edge diffraction model that is widely used for air-to-ground studies and in rugged terrain. Simply design your Tile, Raidal, or Target Point area coverage study in HDCoverage as you normally would and select the Bullington Propagation Model. As shown circled in red below, the “6.2” run button adjacent to the familiar TAP™ run button will be enabled. Select the “6.2” run button and the new calculation engine is launched. Study results appear in HDMapper as usual, but in far less time!
Recall from our December 2013 TAPTips that storing data on solid state hard drives (SSDs) also reduces study execution time. Our benchmarking experiments for a large tile study using 1/3 sec FLT data showed the following results:
TAP™ 6.1, Rotating HDD : 43 min
TAP™ 6.2, Rotating HDD : 8.5 min
TAP™ 6.1, SSD : 3.5 min
TAP™ 6.2, SSD : 0.9 min
By upgrading to TAP™ 6.2, Longley-Rice and Bullington study times may be reduced by 80% and combining TAP™ 6.2 with SSD data storage may reduce study times by 98%. Your individual results may vary based on your specific computer configuration and other factors.
Future TAP™ releases will accelerate our other propagation models. For more information or to upgrade to TAP™ 6.2, please contact sales@softwright.com.