Near-Field Numerical Characterization of Radio-Base Antennas with Parallel Electromagnetic Codes

The rigorous characterization of the near-field behaviour of a radiobase antenna for wireless communication systems is a hot topic both for design and for radioprotection-hazard reasons. The identification of a liable distance so that the far-field approximations hold has a fundamental importance as well. Both the problems deserve a numerical solution, and the use of a Finite-Difference Time-Domain approach is one of the most attractive candidates. Unfortunately, it has strong memory and CPU-time requirements. In this paper, the problem of numerical complexity is circumvented by using parallel computing and suitable platforms -such as the APE100/Quadrics SIMD massively parallel system- on the top of a high-efficiency electromagnetic implementation. Results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method, as well as its amenability to evaluate the far-field distance and the near-field radiative properties of radiobase antennas of large size.