Evaluating near range communications quality

1. A method of evaluating near range communications quality in an environment, the method comprising:

obtaining 3D data describing an environment from a first data source;

processing the 3D data describing the environment to generate a ground-plane data set describing a ground-plane of the environment, and a 3D object data set describing 3D objects in the environment, wherein processing the 3D data comprises selecting 3D data to extract from the first data source to generate the ground-plane data set and the 3D object data set;

obtaining 2D data describing the environment from a second data source, and selecting 2D data from the second data source to combine with the ground-plane data set and/or the 3D object data set to improve the ground-plane data set and/or 3D object data set;

using the ground-plane data set and the 3D object data set to compute a propagation path between a first location and a second location in the environment, and

computing a near range communications quality characteristic of the propagation path.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the near range communications quality characteristic comprises a computed loss rate, the first location is associated with a first communications device, and the second location is associated with a second communications device.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

obtaining information regarding at least one first communications characteristic of the first communications device;

obtaining information regarding at least one second communications characteristic of the second communications device, and

processing the information regarding the first and second communications characteristics and the computed loss rate to calculate a signal level of at least one of the first and the second communications devices.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein steps of the method are repeated to generate a propagation profile for the first communications device by computing multiple said propagation paths to multiple receiver locations.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein computing the propagation path comprises:

determining which of said objects described by the 3D object data set intersect a line of sight path between the first location and the second location.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein computing the propagation path further comprises:

determining a type or geometry of the propagation path, and

using the determined propagation type or geometry to obtain a set of parameters relating to the objects for use in a propagation path calculation algorithm.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the set of parameters relating to the objects for use in a propagation path calculation algorithm includes at least one of:

building width;

street width and orientation relative to the propagation path; and

shorted street canyon path.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein analysing the data describing the environment comprises:

extracting data relating to at least one of a ground-plane and boundary corner locations of the environment from the 3D data describing the environment to generate the ground-plane data set; and

extracting data relating to at least one of object boundary position locations and object corner border locations of said 3D objects in the environment from the 3D data describing the environment to generate the 3D object data set.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of analysing the 3D data describing the environment comprises reading at least some data items of the data describing the environment and categorizing the data items, and the method further comprises storing the data items in the ground-plane data set or the 3D object data set based on their categorization.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the ground-plane data set and the 3D object data set are stored as layers having a same format in a structured database.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein analysing the 3D data describing the environment further comprises:

identifying a group of duplicated data items of the data describing the environment, and

selecting only one of said group of duplicated data items for storage in the structured database.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising computing at least one of road data, waterway data, and vegetation boundary location data based on the ground-plane data set.

13. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising using the computed near range communications quality characteristic to automatically reconfigure a local or remote device.

14. A system configured to evaluate near range communications quality in an environment, the system comprising:

a processor configured to:

obtain 3D data describing an environment from a first data source;

process the 3D data describing the environment to generate a ground-plane data set describing a ground-plane of the environment, and a 3D object data set describing 3D objects in the environment, wherein the processor is configured to select 3D data to extract from the first data source to generate the ground-plane data set and the 3D object data set;

obtain 2D data describing the environment from a second data source; and

select 2D data from the second data source to combine with the ground-plane data set and/or the 3D object data set to improve the ground-plane data set and/or 3D object data set;

a processor configured to use the ground-plane data set and the 3D object data set to compute a propagation path between a first location and a second location in the environment, and

a processor configured to compute a near range communications quality characteristic of the propagation path.