PlaceTool is a Windows software for optimum placement of antennas in an indoor environment.  The software can be used to define the minimum number of base stations needed to provide complete coverage of an indoor area by optimum placement of the antennas.  The software uses building specific data such as floorplans with wall locations and compositions and system parameters such as minimum received power thresholds and antenna patterns.
The propagation mechanisms used in the software are based on the extensive research work at CWINS in modeling of the indoor radio channel, and include both statistical models and ray tracing techniques.
Below, a sample screen capture of the software is given for 2 base stations on the first floor of the Atwater Kent Laboratories building at WPI.  Walls can be added, deleted or changed in the floorplan from the GUI.  Once the floorplan is complete, base stations are simply added by click of the mouse, and base station parameters such as transmitted power, antenna orientatation can be specified in interactive Windows boxes. In addition, custom antenna pattern can be built and associated with the base station. For the simulation, parameters such as received power threshold, launch angle increment (resolution of the contour) can be specified.  Upon running the channel simulator, contours of the coverage of base stations are obtained.