Visibility determination order selection method and visibility determination order selection device

Abstract

According to the present invention, an index value is calculated for each of a plurality of line-of-sight determining approaches for determining a line-of-sight between a base station candidate position, which is a candidate installation position for a base station device, and an evaluation position, which is a candidate installation position for a mobile terminal station device. An order constraint condition is generated on the basis of the index values. From among execution orders that each indicate an order of executing a plurality of line-of-sight determining approaches and that comprise an execution order including any one of the plurality of line-of-sight determining approaches, an execution order generated by combining some of each of the plurality of line-of-sight determining approaches, and an execution order generated by combining all of each of the plurality of line-of-sight determining approaches, an execution order that satisfies the order constraint condition is selected as an order candidate, and a line-of-sight determining order candidate list including the selected order candidate is generated.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a visibility determination order selection method and a visibility determination order selection device. [Background technology]

[0002] There are many methods for determining line of sight to support the design of areas where mobile terminal stations communicate with base stations in high-frequency band wireless communication, such as map-based line of sight determination methods, point cloud-based line of sight methods, and shielding ratio-based line of sight methods.

[0003] In map-based visibility assessment methods, for example, visibility is assessed based on whether the building outline included in ordinary two-dimensional map data intersects with the line segment connecting the base station and the mobile terminal station, i.e., the line of sight detection line (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0004] In a point cloud-based visibility assessment method, for example, a Fresnel zone is assumed between a base station and a mobile terminal station, and the presence or absence of visibility is assessed based on the obscuration rate calculated by overlaying point cloud data existing on multiple circular cross sections within the Fresnel zone using point cloud data existing in the space between the base station and the mobile terminal station (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

[0005] In a visibility assessment method based on the shielding rate, for example, taking into account the presence of obstacles such as trees that do not completely block radio waves in the space between a base station and a mobile terminal station, the shielding loss is calculated from point cloud data existing in the space between the base station and the mobile terminal station, and line design is performed based on the calculated shielding loss to assess whether communication is possible, i.e., whether there is visibility (see, for example, non-patent document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-113933 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2020-107955 A [Non-patent literature]

[0007] [Non-Patent Document 1] NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, "Millimeter-wave band station design support tool", [online], 2019, TsuKuBa Annual History, NTT Research and Development, [Retrieved December 15, 2021], Internet<URL: https: / / www.rd.ntt / as / history / wireless / wi0212.html> Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0008] Each of the above-mentioned visibility assessment methods has various characteristics, such as differences in processing load, differences in the accuracy of visibility assessment, whether point cloud data is required for visibility assessment, etc. Therefore, by appropriately combining and executing a plurality of visibility assessment methods based on these characteristics, it is possible to improve the accuracy of visibility assessment while suppressing the processing load.

[0009] However, for example, when the above-mentioned three visibility assessment methods are executed individually, in a combination of some of them, and in a combination of all of them, the number of possible sequences is as many as 15. In the case of four visibility assessment methods, the number of possible sequences is as many as 64, and as the number of visibility assessment methods used increases, the number of possible sequences increases to an enormous number. If all of such an enormous number of sequences were presented to the user as a selection menu, there would be a problem that the number of items in the selection menu would be too large, making it difficult for the user to determine which sequence is valid, and thus reducing usability.

[0010] In a device that installs base stations and provides design support for areas where wireless communication services are provided, if all possible sequences are implemented to be executable, the implementation configuration becomes complicated, resulting in a problem of high costs.If a new line of sight assessment method appears in the future and is to be used in combination with an existing line of sight assessment method without clear characteristics of the method, such as its processing load and accuracy, it will be difficult to determine where in the execution sequence of the existing line of sight assessment method the new line of sight assessment method should be appropriately incorporated.

[0011] In consideration of the above circumstances, the present invention aims to provide a technology that, when performing visibility assessment using multiple visibility assessment methods, can select a candidate order from among orders that can be executed using multiple visibility assessment methods, which does not impair usability for users and allows implementation at low cost. [Means for solving the problem]

[0012] One aspect of the present invention is a visibility determination order selection method including: an index value calculation process for calculating an index value for each of a plurality of visibility determination methods for determining visibility between a base station candidate location, which is a candidate installation location for a base station device, and an evaluation location, which is a candidate installation location for a mobile terminal device; an order constraint condition generation process for generating order constraint conditions based on the index values; and a visibility determination order candidate list generation process for selecting an execution order indicating the order in which a plurality of the visibility determination methods are to be executed, from among execution orders including any one of the plurality of visibility determination methods, execution orders generated by combining some of the respective methods, and execution orders generated by combining all of the respective methods, as an order candidate, an execution order that satisfies the order constraint conditions, and generating a visibility determination order candidate list including the selected order candidate.

[0013] One aspect of the present invention is a visibility determination order selection device that includes an index value calculation unit that calculates an index value for each of a plurality of visibility determination methods that determine visibility between a base station candidate location, which is a candidate installation location for a base station device, and an evaluation location, which is a candidate installation location for a mobile terminal device; an order constraint condition generation unit that generates order constraint conditions based on the index values; and a visibility determination order candidate list generation unit that selects an execution order that indicates the order in which a plurality of the visibility determination methods are executed as an order candidate from among execution orders that include any one of the plurality of visibility determination methods, execution orders generated by combining some of the respective methods, and execution orders generated by combining all of the respective methods, and generates a visibility determination order candidate list including the selected order candidate. Effect of the Invention

[0014] According to the present invention, when performing visibility assessment using multiple visibility assessment methods, it is possible to select a candidate order from among orders that can be executed using the multiple visibility assessment methods, which does not impair usability for users and allows implementation at low cost. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a visibility determination order selection device according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a communication parameter table according to the first embodiment; FIG. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a visibility determination method in the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a map-based visibility determination method in the first embodiment. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an overview of a visibility determination method based on a point cloud and a blocking ratio in the first embodiment. [Figure 6] 4 is a diagram showing a process flow of the visibility determination order selection device of the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 7]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by an input processing unit in the first embodiment. [Figure 8] 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by an index value calculation unit and a visibility determination processing unit in the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 9] 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a map visibility determining unit in the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 10] 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a point cloud visibility determination unit included in the visibility determination order selection device of the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 11] 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a coverage rate visibility determining unit of the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 12] 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of an order constraint condition table generated in an order constraint condition storage unit in the first embodiment; FIG. [Figure 13] 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a visibility determination order candidate list generating unit in the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 14] 11A to 11C are diagrams illustrating an example of a process performed by a visibility determination order candidate list generating unit in the first embodiment. [Figure 15] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an area design assistance device according to a first embodiment. [Figure 16] 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a predicted processing time calculation table stored in an implementation-dependent data storage unit in the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 17] 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a visibility determination order candidate list table stored in an implementation-dependent data storage unit in the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 18] 2 is a diagram showing an example of a selection menu generated by a selection menu generating unit included in the area design assistance device of the first embodiment; FIG. [Figure 19] FIG. 1 is a diagram (part 1) showing a process flow by the area design support device of the first embodiment. [Figure 20] FIG. 2 is a diagram (part 2) showing the flow of processing by the area design support device of the first embodiment. [Figure 21] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of an order candidate 2 performed in the area design assistance device of the first embodiment. [Figure 22]4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a point cloud visibility determining unit included in the area design assistance device of the first embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 23] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of an order candidate 3 performed in the area design assistance device of the first embodiment. [Figure 24] 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of order candidate 4 or order candidate 5 performed in the area design assistance device of the first embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 25] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a visibility determination order selection device according to a second embodiment. [Figure 26] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by a communication distance visibility determining unit in the second embodiment. [Figure 27] 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of an order constraint condition table generated in an order constraint condition storage unit according to the second embodiment; FIG. [Figure 28] 13 is a diagram illustrating a process performed by a visibility determination order candidate list generating unit in the second embodiment. FIG. [Figure 29] 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a visibility determination order candidate list generated by a visibility determination order candidate list generating unit of the second embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 30] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an area design assistance device according to a second embodiment. [Diagram 31] 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a predicted processing time calculation table stored in an implementation-dependent data storage unit according to the second embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 32] 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a visibility determination order candidate list table stored in an implementation-dependent data storage unit of the second embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 33] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a selection menu generated by a selection menu generating unit included in the area design assistance device of the second embodiment; [Diagram 34] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing by the area design assistance device of the second embodiment. [Diagram 35] 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing performed by another shielding ratio visibility determining unit applied in place of the shielding ratio visibility determining unit of the area design assisting device according to the first and second embodiments. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] (First embodiment) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a visibility determination order selection device 1 according to a first embodiment.

[0017] For example, when there are a map-based visibility assessment method and a point cloud-based visibility assessment method, it is generally known that the map-based visibility assessment method has a smaller processing load but is less accurate than the point cloud-based visibility assessment method. Therefore, the map-based visibility assessment method, which has a smaller processing load, is first executed to obtain a judgment result. For combinations of base stations and mobile terminal stations that are determined to have line of sight in this judgment result, the point cloud-based visibility assessment method is executed. This may reduce the processing load more than when the point cloud-based visibility assessment method is executed for all combinations of base stations and mobile terminal stations, and may improve accuracy more than when only the map-based visibility assessment method is executed.

[0018] Here, it is assumed that a visibility assessment method based on a shading ratio is newly incorporated into the execution order in which a visibility assessment method based on a map is executed and then a visibility assessment method based on a point cloud is executed. In this case, it is necessary to determine whether the visibility assessment method based on a shading ratio should be incorporated before or after the map-based visibility assessment method, or whether the visibility assessment method based on a shading ratio should be incorporated before or after the point cloud-based visibility assessment method. In the first place, the reason why it can be determined that it is better to execute the map-based visibility assessment method first compared to the map-based visibility assessment method and the point cloud-based visibility assessment method is that there is information that the map-based visibility assessment method has a smaller processing load but is inferior in accuracy compared to the point cloud-based visibility assessment method.

[0019] In other words, when deciding the execution order of a map-based visibility assessment method, a point cloud-based visibility assessment method, and a visibility assessment method based on obscuration rate, it is important to grasp information that indicates which execution order is rational and efficient, and the visibility assessment order selection device 1 aims to grasp this information without human intervention and select rational and effective candidate execution order for multiple visibility assessment methods.

[0020] (Configuration of visibility determination order selection device of the first embodiment) The visibility determination order selection device 1 comprises an input processing unit 11, a visibility determination target list generation unit for index values ​​12, an index value calculation unit 13, an order constraint condition generation unit 14, an order constraint condition memory unit 15, a visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 and a visibility determination processing unit 20.

[0021] The input processing unit 11 receives base station candidate position data, antenna pattern data, and point cloud data identification information as input data provided from the outside. The input processing unit 11 determines the consistency of the received base station candidate position data, antenna pattern data, and point cloud data identification information.

[0022] Here, the base station candidate position data is coordinate data indicating a position that is a candidate for installing a base station device. Hereinafter, the position indicated by the base station candidate position data is also referred to as the base station candidate position. The base station candidate position data is three-dimensional coordinate data indicating the position on a two-dimensional plane where the base station device is installed, for example, the position indicated by latitude and longitude, and the height at which the base station device is installed. Note that, in this embodiment, it is assumed that a plurality of base station candidate position data are provided to the input processing unit 11, but it is also possible to provide one base station candidate position data to the input processing unit 11.

[0023] The antenna pattern data is data provided in association with base station candidate position data, and is data related to an antenna provided in a base station device installed at a base station candidate position to transmit and receive radio waves. Here, the data related to the antenna is data indicating the azimuth characteristics of the antenna, and is, for example, one of two types of data: data indicating the azimuth characteristics in an azimuth plane (horizontal plane) and data indicating the azimuth characteristics in an elevation plane (vertical plane). When multiple base station candidate position data are provided to the input processing unit 11, antenna pattern data corresponding to each of the multiple base station candidate position data is provided to the input processing unit 11.

[0024] The point cloud data identification information is identification information that is previously assigned to each of a plurality of point cloud data stored in the point cloud data storage unit 22 provided in the visibility determination processing unit 20. The input processing unit 11 is provided with one piece of point cloud data identification information that identifies any one of the point cloud data to be processed.

[0025] The index value line-of-sight determination target list generating unit 12 sets an evaluation area based on the position indicated by the base station candidate position data acquired by the input processing unit 11. The index value line-of-sight determination target list generating unit 12 sets an evaluation area as follows, on the assumption that all the maximum communication distances of the base station devices are the same. When there is one base station candidate position data, the index value line-of-sight determination target list generating unit 12 sets a circular area having the position indicated by the base station candidate position data as the center and the maximum communication distance as the radius as the evaluation area. When there is multiple base station candidate position data, the index value line-of-sight determination target list generating unit 12 determines the smallest rectangular area that includes all the multiple base station candidate positions, identifies all positions that are away from all positions on the four sides of the rectangular area by the length of the maximum communication distance, and sets the area surrounded by the identified positions as the evaluation area.

[0026] The index value line of sight determination target list generating unit 12 divides the area determined as the evaluation area into a mesh shape, i.e., a lattice shape, so that each divided area is a square area of ​​the same size as previously determined. Here, each divided area is called an evaluation area. The index value line of sight determination target list generating unit 12 sets the position of the representative point of each of the multiple evaluation areas as an evaluation position. This evaluation position becomes a candidate position for installing a mobile terminal station device. Here, the position of the representative point of the evaluation area is, for example, the position of the center of the evaluation area. The coordinate data indicating the evaluation position is the same coordinate system as the coordinate system of the base station candidate position data, and is a position on a two-dimensional plane, for example, a position indicated by latitude and longitude. Hereinafter, the coordinate data indicating the evaluation position is referred to as evaluation position data, and the position indicated by the evaluation position data is also referred to as evaluation position.

[0027] The visibility determination order selection device 1 does not aim to perform visibility determination for all combinations of base station candidate positions and evaluation positions, but aims to determine the order of execution of a plurality of visibility determination methods based on index values ​​corresponding to each of the plurality of visibility determination methods. Therefore, the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12 does not process all evaluation positions in the evaluation area, but randomly selects a predetermined number of evaluation positions required for the index value calculation unit 13 to calculate the index value so that there is no bias in the positions selected in the evaluation area. Here, the predetermined number, i.e., the number of evaluation position data selected randomly, needs to be not significantly different from the number of evaluation position data that is actually the target of visibility determination in the area design support device 2 described later, and is set to, for example, about one tenth or one hundredth of the number of evaluation position data that is the target of visibility determination in the area design support device 2. This makes it possible to reduce the processing load required for the visibility determination process of the visibility determination order selection device 1. Note that, when a highly accurate index value is required, the processing load increases, but the more the number of evaluation position data selected randomly is increased, the higher the accuracy of the index value can be. The index value visibility determination target list generating unit 12 generates a visibility determination target list in which combinations of each of the base station candidate position data and each of the randomly selected evaluation position data are listed in a list format.

[0028] The index value calculation unit 13 receives a designation of the type of visibility determination method for which an index value is to be calculated from a user of the visibility determination order selection device 1. The user designates one, two, or three of three types of visibility determination methods executable in the visibility determination processing unit 20 of the visibility determination order selection device 1, namely, a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a shielding rate-based visibility determination method. The index value calculation unit 13 causes the visibility determination processing unit 20 to execute each of the designated visibility determination methods for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list generated by the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12, and calculates an index value indicating the processing capability for each visibility determination method.

[0029] The order constraint condition generating unit 14 generates order constraint conditions based on the index value for each visibility determination method calculated by the index value calculating unit 13. The order constraint condition storage unit 15 stores data indicating the order constraint conditions generated by the order constraint condition generating unit 14 (hereinafter also referred to as "order constraint condition data") and specified order constraint condition data written from outside in a table format. Here, the specified order constraint condition data is data indicating specified order constraint conditions that are predetermined by a user of the visibility determination order selection device 1 according to the implementation form of the area design support device 2 described later, etc.

[0030] For example, in an implementation form in which the visibility assessment method based on the occlusion ratio is executed only for combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that are determined to have no visibility by the visibility assessment process using the visibility assessment method based on the point cloud, the visibility assessment method based on the occlusion ratio needs to be executed consecutively after the visibility assessment method based on the point cloud. In such a case, the user predetermines a prescribed order constraint condition indicating that the visibility assessment method based on the occlusion ratio is executed consecutively after the visibility assessment method based on the point cloud.

[0031] The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16, like the index value calculating unit 13, receives a designation of the type of visibility determination method for which the index value is to be calculated from the user of the visibility determination order selection device 1. Here, the designation content received by the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 is the same as the designation content received by the index value calculating unit 13. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 generates all execution orders that can be executed by the designated visibility determination method. That is, when multiple types of visibility determination methods are designated, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 generates an execution order that includes any one of the multiple visibility determination methods, an execution order that combines a part of each of the multiple visibility determination methods, and an execution order that combines all of the multiple visibility determination methods. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 selects an execution order that satisfies the order constraint condition as an order candidate from the generated execution orders, and generates a visibility determination order candidate list including the selected order candidate.

[0032] The visibility determination processing unit 20 includes a map data storage unit 21 , a point cloud data storage unit 22 , a communication parameter storage unit 23 , a map visibility determination unit 25 , a point cloud visibility determination unit 26 , and a blockage rate visibility determination unit 27 .

[0033] The map data storage unit 21 stores in advance map information defined in Patent Document 1, that is, two-dimensional map data including data on the outer periphery of a building. The point cloud data storage unit 22 stores in advance a plurality of point cloud data and point cloud data identification information assigned to each of the plurality of point cloud data in association with each other. Here, the point cloud data is, for example, the point cloud data defined in Patent Document 2, and each of the point cloud data includes coordinate data indicating the position of each of the huge number of collected points in a three-dimensional space, and in this embodiment, it is assumed that the point cloud data further includes data indicating the range of the space in which the point cloud data is collected. Note that the coordinate data of the points included in the point cloud data is data in the same coordinate system as the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data.

[0034] The communication parameter storage unit 23 stores in advance a communication parameter table 231 having the data configuration shown in FIG. 2. The communication parameter table 231 has the items of "type of communication parameter" and "communication parameter value". In the item of "type of communication parameter", the names of the seven types of communication parameters are written, namely, the transmission power of the base station device, the maximum transmission antenna gain when the azimuth characteristic of the antenna equipped in the base station device is an azimuth plane (horizontal plane), the maximum transmission antenna gain when the azimuth characteristic of the antenna equipped in the base station device is an elevation plane (vertical plane), the reception antenna gain and required reception sensitivity of the mobile terminal device, the frequency of the radio wave transmitted and received between the base station device and the mobile terminal device, and the coefficient v used when calculating the amount of loss due to shielding from the shielding rate. In the item of "communication parameter value", the numerical value of the communication parameter corresponding to each record is written. In FIG. 2, alphabetical characters that can distinguish each communication parameter value are shown as the communication parameter values, and the unit is also shown for communication parameters having a unit. However, in reality, for communication parameters having a unit, a specific numerical value that is predetermined according to each unit is written. The coefficient v has no unit and takes a different value depending on the magnitude of the frequency f [GHz], and when the frequency f [GHz] to be written in the communication parameter table 231 is determined, the coefficient v is also determined in advance and written in advance in the communication parameter table 231. Note that, regarding the receiving antenna gain of the mobile terminal station device, since it is assumed that the orientation of the antenna of the mobile terminal station device is constantly changing, a value indicating the minimum receiving antenna gain in the mobile terminal station device is written in advance.

[0035] The map visibility determination unit 25 performs a visibility determination method based on a map. For example, assume that a wireless communication environment as shown in FIG. 3 exists. In the environment shown in FIG. 3, a utility pole 51 and four buildings 52 to 55 are installed, and further, a tree 61 is planted. A base station device 40 is installed on the utility pole 51, and the position on a two-dimensional plane indicated by the base station candidate position data of the base station device 40 is the installation position of the utility pole 51 on the ground, and the height in a three-dimensional coordinate system indicated by the base station position data of the base station device 40 is the height from the ground to the base station device 40. In FIG. 3, each of the areas divided into a grid shape shown on the two-dimensional plane that is the ground is each of the evaluation areas obtained by dividing the evaluation area set by the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12 based on the position of the base station device 40 into a mesh shape. FIG. 3 shows, as an example, a state in which mobile terminal station devices 41 and 42 are installed at the evaluation positions of two evaluation areas.

[0036] In Fig. 3, the base station device 40 is shown to be located at the center of the evaluation area in which the base station device 40 exists, but when multiple base station candidate position data are given as described above, the evaluation area is determined based on the smallest rectangular area that includes all of the positions indicated by the multiple base station candidate position data. Therefore, when the base station device 40 shown in Fig. 3 is one of the multiple base station devices when the evaluation area is determined, the base station candidate position corresponding to the base station device 40 does not necessarily coincide with the center position of the evaluation area. In contrast, the evaluation positions, which are the positions of the mobile terminal station devices 41 and 42, are always the center positions of the evaluation areas corresponding to each of them.

[0037] The wireless communication environment of Fig. 3 is shown in Fig. 4 using map data stored in the map data storage unit 21. However, in Fig. 4, a tree 61 is shown only to facilitate comparison with Fig. 3, and is not included in the map data.

[0038] The map visibility determination unit 25 sets the line of sight detection line described in Patent Document 1, based on the base station candidate position corresponding to the base station device 40. In this case, the line of sight detection line 71 is the line of sight detection line set from the base station device 40 to the mobile terminal station device 41, and the line of sight detection line 72 is the line of sight detection line set from the base station device 40 to the mobile terminal station device 42. As described above, the tree 61 is not included in the map data and is not taken into consideration in the visibility determination process of the map visibility determination unit 25, so the line of sight detection line 71 reaches the mobile terminal station device 41 without being blocked by the outer periphery of the buildings 52 to 55. Therefore, the map visibility determination unit 25 determines that there is a line of sight for the combination of the base station candidate position data corresponding to the base station device 40 and the evaluation position data corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 41. In contrast, the line of sight detection line 72 does not reach the mobile terminal station device 42 because it is blocked by the outer periphery of the building 54. Therefore, the map visibility determining unit 25 determines that there is no visibility for the combination of the base station candidate position data corresponding to the base station device 40 and the evaluation position data corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 42.

[0039] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 performs a visibility determination method based on a point cloud. However, the visibility determination method based on a point cloud performed by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 is different from the visibility determination method using point cloud data disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Document 2. For example, in the wireless communication environment shown in FIG. 3, the map visibility determination unit 25 determines that there is visibility for the combination of the base station candidate position data corresponding to the base station device 40 and the evaluation position data corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 41, even though a tree 61 exists in the actual environment. This is because the map-based visibility determination method performed by the map visibility determination unit 25 cannot take into account the presence of the tree 61.

[0040] In response to this, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 performs visibility determination based on the point cloud data stored in the point cloud data storage unit 22. The point cloud data includes not only data showing the shapes of the buildings 52-55 and utility poles 51 by points, but also data showing the shapes of the trees 61 by points. Therefore, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 can perform visibility determination processing that takes into account the presence of trees 61 that are not shown in the map data.

[0041] As shown in Fig. 5, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines a first Fresnel zone 81 between the base station candidate position corresponding to the base station device 40 in the three-dimensional space and the evaluation position corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 41. Hereinafter, the first Fresnel zone is simply referred to as the Fresnel zone. Note that, for convenience of explanation, Fig. 5 depicts a state in which the mobile terminal station device 41 is carried by a person's hand, but the position of the mobile terminal station device 41 does not include information indicating the height, and is expressed as a position on a two-dimensional plane indicated by the evaluation position data as described above.

[0042] Point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines cylinder 83, which is a cylinder formed by extending maximum cross section 82 of determined Fresnel zone 81 in the vertical direction of maximum cross section 82, and on each of the two bottom faces of the cylinder, there is a base station candidate position corresponding to base station device 40 and an evaluation position corresponding to mobile terminal station device 41. Hereinafter, cylinder 83 is also referred to as cylinder 83 formed from Fresnel zone 81.

[0043] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 counts the number of points present inside the cylinder 83 among the points included in the point cloud data corresponding to the point cloud data identification information given to the input processing unit 11. The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines whether there is visibility between the base station candidate position corresponding to the base station device 40 and the evaluation position corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 41 based on the number of counted points and a predetermined threshold value. Thereby, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 can determine that there is no visibility between the base station device 40 and the mobile terminal station device 41 when a tree 61 exists on the path from the base station device 40 to the mobile terminal station device 41 and, for example, the number of points in the cylinder 83 exceeds the threshold value due to the points forming the tree 61. Therefore, in an environment where an obstacle that does not appear in the map data, such as a tree 61, exists, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 can perform visibility determination with higher accuracy than the map visibility determination unit 25.

[0044] The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 performs a visibility determination method based on the shielding rate. The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 determines whether there is visibility between the base station candidate position and the evaluation position, taking into account the shielding rate Sh between the base station candidate position and the evaluation position. Here, the shielding rate Sh is a value indicating the density of points inside the cylinder 83, which is calculated by the shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 based on, for example, the volume of the cylinder 83 shown in FIG. 5 and the number of points of the point cloud data present inside the cylinder 83. The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 performs line design based on the communication parameters shown in the communication parameter table 231 stored in the communication parameter storage unit 23 and the calculated shielding rate, thereby determining the reception power P of the radio wave received by the mobile terminal station device 41 from the base station device 40. R The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 calculates the calculated received power P R and the required receiving sensitivity P of the mobile terminal station device shown in the communication parameter table 231. RS Based on this, it is determined whether there is line of sight between the base station candidate position corresponding to the base station device 40 and the evaluation position corresponding to the mobile terminal station device 41.

[0045] For example, suppose that a tree 61 exists on the path from the base station device 40 to the mobile terminal station device 41, and therefore the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines that there is no visibility. Even in such a case, the blocking ratio visibility determination unit 27 takes into account the above-mentioned blocking ratio Sh, and therefore may be able to determine that there is visibility, contrary to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, when the influence of blocking by the tree 61 is not large. Therefore, the blocking ratio visibility determination unit 27 is able to perform visibility determination with higher accuracy than the point cloud visibility determination unit 26.

[0046] (Processing by the visibility determination order selection device of the first embodiment) Next, the processing by the visibility determination order selection device 1 will be described with reference to Fig. 6 to Fig. 14. Here, the index value calculation unit 13 calculates a narrowing down ratio as an index value indicating the processing capability for each visibility determination method. Here, the narrowing down ratio is an index value indicating how many combinations have been determined to have visibility out of a plurality of combinations of targets for visibility determination. In the following, the index value calculation unit 13 and the visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 are specified with three types of visibility determination methods: a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a shading rate-based visibility determination method.

[0047] Hereinafter, the flow of processing by the visibility determination order selection device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 6. The input processing unit 11 starts a subroutine of the input processing shown in Fig. 7 (step Sa1).

[0048] (Subroutine processing by the input processing section) The input processing unit 11 acquires a plurality of base station candidate position data (step Sb1). The input processing unit 11 acquires a plurality of antenna pattern data corresponding to each of the plurality of base station candidate position data (step Sb2). The input processing unit 11 acquires point cloud identification data (step Sb3). The input processing unit 11 reads out data indicating the range of space in which the point cloud data was collected, which is included in the point cloud data corresponding to the acquired point cloud identification data from the point cloud data storage unit 22 (step Sb4).

[0049] The input processing unit 11 performs a process of determining the consistency between the input data, i.e., the plurality of base station candidate position data, the plurality of antenna pattern data, and the point cloud data identification information. The input processing unit 11 performs a process of determining the consistency, for example, whether the spatial range in which the point cloud data corresponding to the point cloud data identification information is collected is an appropriate range in consideration of the plurality of base station candidate position data and the maximum communication distance of the base station device (step Sb5). For example, the input processing unit 11 may set an evaluation area based on the plurality of base station candidate position data and the maximum communication distance of the base station device, and determine the consistency based on whether the spatial range in which the point cloud data corresponding to the point cloud data identification information is collected includes the set evaluation area.

[0050] If the input processing unit 11 determines that the result of the consistency judgment process is "NG" indicating that there is no consistency (step Sb6, NG), it outputs an error message indicating that the input data needs to be re-entered to a display unit such as a display provided on the visibility judgment order selection device 1 (not shown) (step Sb7), and terminates the processing.

[0051] On the other hand, if the input processing unit 11 determines that the result of the consistency determination process is “OK”, indicating that there is consistency (step Sb6, OK), it outputs the input data, that is, multiple base station candidate position data, multiple antenna pattern data, and point cloud data identification information, to the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12 (step Sb8), and terminates the input processing subroutine.

[0052] Returning to Fig. 6, the index value visibility determination target list generating unit 12 takes in the input data output by the input processing unit 11. The index value visibility determination target list generating unit 12 sets an evaluation area based on a plurality of base station candidate position data included in the taken-in input data (step Sa2). As described above, when the input processing unit 11 sets an evaluation area and judges the consistency of the input data, the index value visibility determination target list generating unit 12 may receive data indicating the evaluation area from the input processing unit 11 in the process of step Sa2, rather than setting the evaluation area itself.

[0053] The visibility determination target list generating unit 12 for index value randomly selects a predetermined number of evaluation positions based on the set evaluation area as evaluation positions of samples for index value calculation to generate evaluation position data (step Sa3). The visibility determination target list generating unit 12 for index value combines each of the multiple base station candidate position data and each of the multiple evaluation position data to generate a visibility determination target list. The visibility determination target list generating unit 12 for index value associates antenna pattern data corresponding to each of the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list with each of the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list. The visibility determination target list generating unit 12 for index value outputs the generated visibility determination target list, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, data indicating the evaluation area, and point cloud data identification information to the index value calculation unit 13 (step Sa4).

[0054] The index value calculation unit 13 imports the visibility determination target list output by the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12, antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, data indicating the evaluation area, and point cloud data identification information, and starts a subroutine to calculate an index value for each visibility determination method shown in Figure 8 (step Sa5).

[0055] (Subroutine processing by index value calculation unit) As described above, the index value calculation unit 13 is specified with three types of visibility assessment methods: a map-based visibility assessment method, a point cloud-based visibility assessment method, and a blocking ratio-based visibility assessment method. Therefore, the index value calculation unit 13 repeatedly executes, for example, each of the three visibility assessment methods one by one in order to calculate an index value (loops Lc1s to Lc1e). Here, as an example, a case will be described in which the index value calculation unit 13 executes the map-based visibility assessment method, the point cloud-based visibility assessment method, and the blocking ratio-based visibility assessment method in that order.

[0056] The index value calculation unit 13 outputs the imported visibility determination target list and data indicating the evaluation area to the map visibility determination unit 25, thereby performing processing of step Sc1 corresponding to the map visibility determination unit 25, i.e., the processing shown in Figure 9.

[0057] (Map-based visibility determination processing) As shown in FIG. 9, the map visibility determination unit 25 takes in the visibility determination target list output by the index value calculation unit 13 and data indicating the evaluation area (step Sd1).

[0058] The map visibility determination unit 25 reads out map data corresponding to the evaluation area from the map data storage unit 21 based on the data indicating the evaluation area that has been imported (step Sd2). The map visibility determination unit 25 selects any one of the base station candidate position data included in the imported visibility determination target list as the processing target base station candidate position data. The map visibility determination unit 25 extracts all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data including the selected processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list. The map visibility determination unit 25 selects one combination from the extracted combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, and performs map-based visibility determination processing for the selected combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data (step Sd3).

[0059] The map visibility determination unit 25 determines whether the result of the visibility determination is "OK" indicating that there is visibility, or "NG" indicating that there is no visibility (step Sd4). When the map visibility determination unit 25 determines that the result of the visibility determination is "OK" (step Sd4, OK), it writes and stores the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are the subject of the visibility determination in an internal memory area (step Sd5).

[0060] After the process of step Sd5, or when the result of the visibility judgment is judged to be "NG" (step Sd4, NG), the map visibility judgment unit 25 selects one pair that is not the judgment target from among the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the processes of steps Sd3 to Sd5 again. As a result, the process of the visibility judgment based on the map is performed for all the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data (loop Ld2s to Ld2e).

[0061] When the process of loops Ld2s to Ld2e for the target base station candidate position data is completed, the map visibility determination unit 25 selects other base station candidate position data that is not set as the target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list as the next target base station candidate position data, and performs the process of loops Ld2s to Ld2e for the selected target base station candidate position data. By repeating this process until there is no base station candidate position data that is not set as the target base station candidate position data, the map-based visibility determination process is performed for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list (loops Ld1s to Ld1e).

[0062] The map visibility determination unit 25 outputs data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been determined to have visibility and that are written in an internal memory area to the index value calculation unit 13 (step Sd6), and terminates the processing (step Sc1 corresponding to the processing of visibility determination based on the map).

[0063] Returning to FIG. 8, the index value calculation unit 13 imports data indicating combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the map visibility determination unit 25. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of the imported data, and sets the counted number as Nb1. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list, and sets the counted number as Na. The index value calculation unit 13 divides Nb1 by Na to calculate a narrowing down ratio Rs1, and sets the calculated narrowing down ratio Rs1 as an index value of the map-based visibility determination method (step Sc2 corresponding to the processing of map-based visibility determination).

[0064] In the second iteration of loop Lc1s to Lc1e, the index value calculation unit 13 outputs the imported visibility determination target list and point cloud data identification information to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, thereby performing processing of step Sc1 corresponding to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, i.e., the processing shown in Figure 10.

[0065] (Point cloud-based visibility assessment processing) As shown in FIG. 10, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 takes in the visibility determination target list and the point cloud data identification information output by the index value calculation unit 13 (step Se1).

[0066] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 reads out the point cloud data corresponding to the imported point cloud data identification information from the point cloud data storage unit 22 (step Se2). The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 selects any one of the base station candidate position data included in the imported visibility determination target list as the processing target base station candidate position data. The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 extracts all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data including the selected processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list. The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 selects one combination from the extracted combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, and performs a visibility determination process based on the point cloud for the selected combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. That is, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 sets a Fresnel zone between the position indicated by the selected base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data, and counts the number of points in the point cloud data included in a cylinder formed from the set Fresnel zone (step Se3).

[0067] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines whether the number of counted points is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold (step Se4). If the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 determines that the number of counted points is equal to or less than the threshold (step Se4, Yes), it writes and stores the combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data to be subjected to visibility determination in an internal storage area (step Se5).

[0068] After the process of step Se5, or when it is determined that the number of counted points is not equal to or less than the threshold (step Se4, No), the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 selects one pair that is not the judgment target from among the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the processes of steps Se3 to Se5 again. As a result, the processing of the visibility determination based on the point cloud is performed for all the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data (loops Le2s to Le2e).

[0069] When the processing of the loop Le2s to Le2e for the processing target base station candidate position data is completed, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 selects other base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list as the next processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the processing of the loop Le2s to Le2e for the selected processing target base station candidate position data. By repeating this processing until there is no base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data, the processing of visibility determination based on the point cloud is performed for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list (loop Le1s to Le1e).

[0070] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26 outputs data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been determined to have visibility and that are written in an internal memory area to the index value calculation unit 13 (step Se6), and terminates the processing (step Sc1 corresponding to the processing of visibility determination based on the point cloud).

[0071] Returning to FIG. 8, the index value calculation unit 13 imports data indicating combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of the imported data, and sets the counted number as Nb2. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list, and sets the counted number as Na. The index value calculation unit 13 divides Nb2 by Na to calculate a narrowing down ratio Rs2, and sets the calculated narrowing down ratio Rs2 as an index value of the visibility determination method based on the point cloud (step Sc2 corresponding to the processing of visibility determination based on the point cloud).

[0072] In the third iteration of loop Lc1s to Lc1e, the index value calculation unit 13 outputs the imported visibility determination target list, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and the point cloud data identification information to the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27, thereby performing processing of step Sc1 corresponding to the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27, i.e., the processing shown in Figure 11.

[0073] (Visibility determination process based on occlusion rate) As shown in FIG. 11, the shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 imports the visibility determination target list output by the index value calculation unit 13, antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and point cloud data identification information (step Sf1).

[0074] The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 reads out the point cloud data corresponding to the imported point cloud data identification information from the point cloud data storage unit 22 (step Sf2). The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 selects any one of the base station candidate position data included in the imported visibility determination target list as the processing target base station candidate position data. The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 extracts all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data including the selected processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list. The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 selects one combination from the extracted combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, and performs the following visibility determination process based on the shielding rate for the selected combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data.

[0075] The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 calculates the distance d between the position indicated by the selected base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data. The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 reads out the frequency f [GHz] of the radio wave from the "frequency" item of the communication parameter table 231 stored in the communication parameter storage unit 23. The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 substitutes the read-out frequency f into the following formula (1) to calculate the wavelength λ [m] of the radio wave.

[0076]

number

[0077] The shielding ratio visibility determining unit 27 calculates the propagation loss amount L [dB] by substituting the calculated distance d and the calculated wavelength λ into the following equation (2) (step Sf3).

[0078]

number

[0079] The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 sets a Fresnel zone between the position indicated by the selected base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data, and counts the number of points in the point cloud data included in a cylinder formed from the set Fresnel zone. The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 calculates the density within the cylinder, which is expressed as a value between 0.0000 and 1.0000, based on the volume of the cylinder and the number of counted points, and sets the calculated density as the shielding rate Sh.

[0080] The shielding rate visibility determining unit 27 reads out a coefficient v from the “coefficient” item of the communication parameter table 231 stored in the communication parameter storage unit 23. The shielding rate visibility determining unit 27 calculates the amount of loss S [dB] due to shielding by the following formula (3), i.e., by multiplying the read-out coefficient v by the calculated shielding rate Sh (step Sf4).

[0081]

number

[0082] The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 determines the transmission power P T [dBm] and the receiving antenna gain G of the mobile terminal station RWhen the antenna pattern data corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data indicates an azimuth angle plane, that is, a horizontal plane, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 reads out the maximum transmission antenna gain (horizontal plane) G [dBi] of the base station device from the communication parameter table 231. TH When the antenna pattern data corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data indicates an elevation angle plane, that is, a vertical plane, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 reads out the maximum transmission antenna gain (vertical plane) G TV Since one type of antenna pattern data is associated with each of the processing target base station candidate position data, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 reads out G TH [dBi] and G TV Therefore, in the following description, either one of the maximum transmitting antenna gains read by the shielding ratio visibility determining unit 27 is referred to as the maximum transmitting antenna gain G T The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 determines the transmission power P T [dBm] and the maximum transmit antenna gain G of the base station equipment T [dBi] and the receiving antenna gain G of the mobile terminal station R The received power P at the mobile terminal station is calculated by subtracting the calculated propagation loss L [dB] and the calculated loss due to obstruction S [dB] from the sum of the received power P R Calculate [dBm] (step Sf5).

[0083] The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 determines the required receiving sensitivity P RS [dBm] is read out, and the judgment shown in the following equation (4), that is, the calculated received power P R [dBm] is the required receiver sensitivity P RS It is then determined whether or not the level is equal to or higher than [dBm] (step Sf6).

[0084]

number

[0085] The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 determines the received power P R [dBm] is the required receiver sensitivity P RS If it is determined that the distance is equal to or greater than [dBm] (step Sf6, Yes), it is determined that there is line of sight, and the combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data to be subjected to line of sight determination is written and stored in an internal storage area (step Sf7).

[0086] The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 is configured to determine whether or not the received power P R [dBm] is the required receiver sensitivity P RS If it is determined that the coverage ratio is not equal to or greater than [dBm] (step Sf6, No), one pair that is not the subject of the determination is selected from the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate location data, and the processing of steps Sf3 to Sf7 is performed again. As a result, the processing of visibility determination based on the coverage ratio is performed for all combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate location data (loop Lf2s to Lf2e).

[0087] When the process of loop Lf2s to Lf2e for the processing target base station candidate position data is completed, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 selects other base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list as the next processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the process of loop Lf2s to Lf2e for the selected processing target base station candidate position data. By repeating this process until there is no base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data, the process of visibility determination based on the shielding ratio is performed for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list (loop Lf1s to Lf1e).

[0088] The shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 outputs data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been determined to have visibility and that are written in an internal memory area to the index value calculation unit 13 (step Sf8), and terminates the processing (step Sc1 corresponding to the processing of visibility determination based on the shielding rate).

[0089] Returning to FIG. 8, the index value calculation unit 13 takes in data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the shielding rate visibility determination unit 27. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of the taken-in data, and sets the counted number as Nb3. The index value calculation unit 13 counts the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list, and sets the counted number as Na. The index value calculation unit 13 divides Nb3 by Na to calculate a narrowing down ratio Rs3, and sets the calculated narrowing down ratio Rs3 as an index value of the visibility determination method based on the shielding rate (step Sc2 corresponding to the processing of visibility determination based on the shielding rate). As a result, the index value calculation unit 13 ends the processing of the loop Lc1s to Lc1e shown in FIG. 8, outputs the calculated index value for each visibility determination method to the order constraint condition generation unit 14 (step Sc3), and ends the subroutine for calculating the index value for each visibility determination method.

[0090] Returning to FIG. 6, the order constraint condition generation unit 14 takes in the index value for each visibility determination method output by the index value calculation unit 13. The order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates order constraint conditions based on the taken-in index value for each visibility determination method. For example, the order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates a constraint condition indicating that the visibility determination method is executed in order starting from the one with the smallest index value for each visibility determination method. The order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates an order constraint condition indicating that the visibility determination method with the largest index value for each visibility determination method is not executed alone. The order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates an order constraint condition table 151 including the generated order constraint conditions in the order constraint condition storage unit 15 (step Sa6).

[0091] Here, assume that the narrowing ratios Rs1, Rs2, and Rs3, which are the index values for each perspective determination method calculated by the index value calculation unit 13, satisfy the relationship Rs1 < Rs2 < Rs3. In this case, as shown in the order constraint condition table 151 shown in FIG. 12, the order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates a first condition indicated by "map → point cloud → shielding rate", which indicates that the perspective determination method based on the map, the perspective determination method based on the point cloud, and the perspective determination method based on the shielding rate are executed in this order, as an order constraint condition. The order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates a second condition indicated by "shielding rate" as an order constraint condition, which indicates that the perspective determination method based on the shielding rate, which has the maximum narrowing ratio, is not performed alone.

[0092] The user of the perspective determination order selection device 1 operates the perspective determination order selection device 1 and writes and adds, as a third condition, "point cloud → shielding rate", which indicates a condition that the perspective determination method based on the shielding rate is continuously executed after the perspective determination method based on the point cloud, which is a predetermined specified order constraint condition, to the order constraint condition table 151 of the order constraint condition storage unit 15. As a result, the order constraint condition table 151 shown in FIG. 12 is generated (step Sa7).

[0093] When the perspective determination order candidate list generation unit 16 receives a start instruction from the user of the perspective determination order selection device 1, it generates a flowchart showing the processing procedure for selecting the order candidates shown in FIG. 13 with reference to the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition included in the order constraint condition table 151 of the order constraint condition storage unit 15 (step Sa8). In FIG. 13, steps Sg1, Sg2, Sg3, and Sg7 are predetermined processes. The perspective determination order candidate list generation unit 16 adds the determination processes of steps Sg4, Sg5, and Sg6 for determining each of the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition to the predetermined processes of steps Sg1, Sg2, Sg3, and Sg7 to generate a flowchart. The perspective determination order candidate list generation unit 16 starts a subroutine for selecting the order candidates indicated by the generated flowchart of FIG. 13 (step Sa9).

[0094] (Subroutine processing by visibility determination order candidate list generation unit) As described above, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 is specified with three types of visibility determination methods: a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a shading rate-based visibility determination method. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 generates all possible execution orders from the three specified visibility determination methods. That is, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 generates all execution orders in which each of the three specified visibility determination methods is executed alone, in combination with some of them, and in combination with all of them (step Sg1). The number of execution order patterns generated by the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 is 15 in total, as shown in the following formula (5).

[0095]

number

[0096] Fig. 14 is a table showing 15 execution order patterns generated by the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16, and indicates that the visibility determination method written in the [1st execution] item is executed first, the visibility determination method written in the [2nd execution] item is executed second, and the visibility determination method written in the [3rd execution] item is executed third. In the table of Fig. 14, the visibility determination based on the map is represented by "map", the visibility determination method based on the point cloud is represented by "point cloud", and the visibility determination method based on the occlusion ratio is represented by "occlusion ratio", and the places where [-] is written indicate that none of the visibility determination methods are executed.

[0097] The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 judges whether all of the 15 generated patterns of execution orders have been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg2). If the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 judges that all of the 15 generated patterns of execution orders have not been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg2, No), it selects a pattern that has not yet been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg3) and performs the judgment process of step Sg4 in which it is judged whether the selected pattern satisfies the first condition.

[0098] When the result of the determination process in step Sg4 is "Yes", that is, when the first condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 next performs a determination process in step Sg5 in which it determines whether or not the second condition is satisfied. When the result of the determination process in step Sg5 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the second condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 next performs a determination process in step Sg6 in which it determines whether or not the third condition is satisfied. When the result of the determination process in step Sg6 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the third condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 writes and stores the execution order indicated in the pattern to be determined as an order candidate in an internal storage area (step Sg7). Note that when the determination process in steps Sg4, Sg5, and Sg6 is "No", the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 advances the process to step Sg2.

[0099] That is, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 sets as an order candidate a pattern that satisfies all of the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition. For example, in the table shown in Fig. 14, patterns 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15 do not follow the order of "map -> point cloud -> shielding rate" of the first condition, so the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 judges as "No" in the judgment process of step Sg4 and does not set them as order candidates.

[0100] Pattern 11 indicates that the visibility determination method based on the blocking rate is performed alone, and therefore does not satisfy the second condition. Therefore, the visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 determines “No” for pattern 11 in the determination process of step Sg5, and does not include it as an order candidate.

[0101] Pattern 4 indicates that the visibility assessment method based on the obscuration ratio is performed after the visibility assessment method based on the map, and therefore does not satisfy the third condition that the visibility assessment method based on the obscuration ratio is performed consecutively after the visibility assessment method based on the point cloud. Therefore, the visibility assessment order candidate list generating unit 16 judges Pattern 4 as “No” in the judgment process of step Sg6, and does not set it as an order candidate.

[0102] In the table shown in Figure 14, patterns 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 that are not shaded satisfy the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition, so the visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 writes and stores the execution order of patterns 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 in an internal memory area as order candidates in the processing of step Sg7.

[0103] When it is determined that all of the 15 generated execution order patterns have been subjected to the determination process (Yes in step Sg2), the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 ends the subroutine for selecting order candidates.

[0104] Returning to Figure 6, the visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 generates a visibility determination order candidate list including data indicating the execution order of patterns 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9, that is, the order candidates stored in an internal memory area, and outputs the generated visibility determination order candidate list to the outside (step Sa10), thereby completing the processing.

[0105] (Configuration of the area design support device according to the first embodiment) Fig. 15 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an area design support device 2 implemented based on the visibility determination order candidate list output by the visibility determination order selection device 1 when a user specifies three types of visibility determination methods in the visibility determination order selection device 1. Here, the three types of visibility determination methods specified in the visibility determination order selection device 1 are a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a blocking rate-based visibility determination method. In Fig. 15, the same components as those in the visibility determination order selection device 1 shown in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and the different components will be described below.

[0106] The area design support device 2 includes an input processing unit 11, a map data memory unit 21, a point cloud data memory unit 22, a communication parameter memory unit 23, a map visibility determination unit 25, a point cloud visibility determination unit 26a, a shielding rate visibility determination unit 27, a visibility determination target list generation unit 31, an implementation-dependent data memory unit 32, a predicted processing time calculation unit 33, a selection menu generation unit 34, an order selection receiving unit 35, a visibility determination execution unit 36, a determination result memory unit 37 and a determination result processing unit 38.

[0107] As shown in FIG. 10, when the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 included in the visibility determination order selection device 1 determines "No" in step Se4, that is, when it determines that the number of counted points is not equal to or less than the threshold, it continues the processing of loop Le2s to Le2e without performing any particular processing. In contrast, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a included in the area design support device 2 has an additional processing of step Se7 as shown in FIG. 22. That is, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a is configured differently from the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 in that, when the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines "No" in step Se4, it performs processing of step Se7 that outputs data indicating the combination of visibility determination targets that were the subject of the determination of "No". In this way, the area design support device 2 makes it possible to execute the processing of visibility determination based on the shielding ratio by the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 in parallel while the processing of visibility determination based on the point cloud by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a is being executed.

[0108] The visibility determination target list generating unit 12 for index values ​​provided in the visibility determination order selection device 1 does not process all evaluation positions within the evaluation area, but randomly selects a predetermined number of evaluation positions required for the index value calculation unit 13 to calculate the index value. In contrast, the visibility determination target list generating unit 31 processes all evaluation positions within the evaluation area, and generates a visibility determination target list by combining each of the multiple base station candidate position data taken from the input processing unit 11 with each of the evaluation position data indicating all evaluation positions within the evaluation area.

[0109] The implementation-dependent data storage unit 32 prestores a processing prediction time calculation table 311 shown in Fig. 16 and a visibility determination order candidate list table 312 shown in Fig. 17. The processing prediction time calculation table 311 has items of "type of visibility determination method" and "processing time (seconds)". In the "type of visibility determination method" item, one of "map" indicating a visibility determination method based on a map, "point cloud" indicating a visibility determination method based on a point cloud, and "obscuration rate" indicating a visibility determination method based on an obscuration rate is written in advance. In the "processing time (seconds)" item, a value indicating the processing time of the visibility determination method shown in the "type of visibility determination method" item of each record is written in units of "seconds".

[0110] In the example shown in FIG. 16, it is shown that the map-based visibility determination method requires a processing time of α seconds, the point cloud-based visibility determination method requires a processing time of β seconds, and the shielding ratio-based visibility determination method requires a processing time of γ seconds. Here, the processing time of each visibility determination method is a time measured in advance as follows. For example, for a combination of an arbitrarily determined set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, the visibility determination process is performed using each of the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 provided in the visibility determination order selection device 1. By measuring the time from the start to the end of the visibility determination process of each of the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27, the corresponding processing time can be obtained. The processing times obtained for each of the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 are α seconds, β seconds, and γ seconds shown in FIG. 16.

[0111] The visibility determination order candidate list table 312 has the items of "order candidate", "first execution", "second execution", and "third execution". In the "order candidate" item, for example, consecutive numbers such as 1, 2, 3, ... are written in advance according to the number of existing records. In the items of "first execution", "second execution", and "third execution", the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list output by the visibility determination order selection device 1 are pre-transcribed. For example, it is assumed that the visibility determination order candidate list includes the contents of the items of "first execution", "second execution", and "third execution" of patterns 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 shown in the table of FIG. 14. In this case, the contents of the items of "first execution", "second execution", and "third execution" of patterns 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 of the visibility determination order candidate list are transcribed as the contents of the items of "first execution", "second execution", and "third execution" of the visibility determination order candidate list table 312. In addition, Figure 17 shows an example in which the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list are not transcribed as is, but rather the order is rearranged and transcribed, with pattern 1 as order candidate 1, pattern 6 as order candidate 2, pattern 9 as order candidate 3, pattern 2 as order candidate 4, and pattern 3 as order candidate 5.

[0112] The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 calculates a predicted processing time predicted to be required for processing in each of the three types of visibility determination methods based on the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list generated by the visibility determination target list generation unit 31 and the processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods included in the predicted processing time calculation table 311 of the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 calculates a predicted processing time for each of the order candidates by accumulating the calculated predicted processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods according to the visibility determination method included in each of the order candidates in the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 of the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32.

[0113] For example, if the visibility determination target list contains 100 combinations, the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 calculates 100 × α (seconds) as the predicted processing time for order candidate 1, 100 × β (seconds) as the predicted processing time for order candidate 2, 100 × (β + γ) (seconds) as the predicted processing time for order candidate 3, 100 × (α + β) (seconds) as the predicted processing time for order candidate 4, and 100 × (α + β + γ) (seconds) as the predicted processing time for order candidate 5.

[0114] However, the predicted processing time for each visibility determination method calculated by the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 is a value obtained by multiplying the processing time required for processing by each visibility determination method when applying each visibility determination method to a combination of an arbitrarily determined set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data by the number of combinations included in the visibility determination target list. The processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods varies when the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data is different. Therefore, the predicted processing time for each visibility determination method calculated by the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 is a time including an error. When multiple visibility determination methods are executed, such as the order candidates 3, 4, and 5, the visibility determination method executed later is executed based on the determination result of the visibility determination method executed immediately before. Therefore, the number of combinations to be determined may decrease, resulting in an error. Therefore, the predicted processing time for each order candidate described above is a time including an error and is merely a guideline.

[0115] The selection menu generation unit 34 generates a selection menu to be presented to a user of the area design support device 2 based on the processing time for each order candidate calculated by the estimated processing time calculation unit 33 and the contents written in the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32.

[0116] 18 is a diagram showing an example of a selection menu generated by the selection menu generating unit 34. In the selection menu, the contents of the items "Order candidate", "First execution", "Second execution", and "Third execution" are the same as the contents of the items "Order candidate", "First execution", "Second execution", and "Third execution" in the visibility determination order candidate list table 312. In the item "Predicted processing time (sec)", the predicted processing time calculated by the predicted processing time calculating unit 33 for each of the order candidates is written.

[0117] The order selection receiving unit 35 displays the selection menu generated by the selection menu generating unit 34 on a display unit such as a display (not shown) provided in the area design support device 2. The order selection receiving unit 35 imports data indicating order candidates to be selected by a user who refers to the selection menu displayed on the display unit, and outputs the imported data indicating the order candidates.

[0118] The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32, detects the execution order of the visibility determination methods corresponding to the data indicating the order candidates output by the order selection receiving unit 35, and selects and executes the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a and the occlusion rate visibility determination unit 27 in accordance with the detected execution order of the visibility determination methods to perform the visibility determination process.

[0119] The judgment result memory unit 37 stores data indicating combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility judgment target list that are judged to have visibility in the visibility judgment process executed by the visibility judgment execution unit 36.

[0120] When the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​writes all data indicating combinations determined to have visibility (hereinafter referred to as "determination result data") into the determination result storage unit 37, the determination result processing unit 38 performs post-processing on the written determination result data, for example, as described below. The determination result processing unit 38 performs processing to convert the format of the determination result data stored in the determination result storage unit 37 into a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format so that users of the area design support device 2 can easily use the determination result data.

[0121] The determination result processing unit 38 performs processing to write the determination result data to an external shared database or the like connected to the area design support device 2 so that the determination result data can be referenced from other systems or the like. The determination result processing unit 38 displays the determination result data on a display unit (not shown) provided in the area design support device 2. For example, when the area design support device 2 is connected to a communication network and a user operates another device connected to the communication network to perform visibility determination processing using the area design support device 2, the determination result processing unit 38 transmits a signal indicating that the visibility determination processing has ended, for example, an end notification signal indicated by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), to the other device.

[0122] (Processing by the area design support device of the first embodiment) Next, the processing by the area design support device 2 will be described with reference to Fig. 19 to Fig. 24. The flowcharts shown in Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 are processes performed continuously as indicated by the symbol "A" indicating that the processes are connected. The input processing unit 11 executes the subroutine of the input processing shown in Fig. 7 (step Sh1). The input data taken in by the input processing unit 11 of the area design support device 2, i.e., the base station candidate position data, the antenna pattern data, and the point cloud data identification information, may be the same as or different from the input data taken in by the input processing unit 11 of the visibility determination order selection device 1.

[0123] The visibility determination target list generation unit 31 performs the same process as that performed by the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12 in the process of step Sa2 in Fig. 6 based on the base station candidate position data taken in by the input processing unit 11 in step Sh1 to set an evaluation area (step Sh2). Note that when the input processing unit 11 sets an evaluation area and judges the consistency of the input data, the visibility determination target list generation unit 31 may receive data indicating the evaluation area from the input processing unit 11 in the process of step Sh2, rather than setting the evaluation area itself.

[0124] The visibility determination target list generating unit 31 selects all evaluation positions included in the set evaluation area and generates evaluation position data (step Sh3). The visibility determination target list generating unit 31 generates a visibility determination target list by combining each of the multiple base station candidate position data and each of the multiple evaluation position data. The visibility determination target list generating unit 31 associates antenna pattern data corresponding to each of the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list with each of the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list. The visibility determination target list generating unit 31 outputs the generated visibility determination target list to the processing prediction time calculation unit 33, and outputs the generated visibility determination target list, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, data indicating the evaluation area, and point cloud data identification information to the visibility determination execution unit 36. The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​imports the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination target list generation unit 31, antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, data indicating the evaluation area, and point cloud data identification information (step Sh4).

[0125] The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 imports the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination target list generation unit 31, and counts the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the imported visibility determination target list. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 refers to the predicted processing time calculation table 311 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32, and multiplies the counted number by the processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods shown in the predicted processing time calculation table 311 to calculate the predicted processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32, and calculates the predicted processing time for each of the order candidates by accumulating the predicted processing time for each of the three types of visibility determination methods according to the visibility determination method included in each of the order candidates in the visibility determination order candidate list table 312. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 outputs the calculated predicted processing time for each of the order candidates to the selection menu generation unit 34 (step Sh5).

[0126] The selection menu generation unit 34 imports data indicating the estimated processing time for each of the order candidates output by the estimated processing time calculation unit 33. The selection menu generation unit 34 reads out the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32. The selection menu generation unit 34 generates the selection menu shown in Fig. 18 based on the data indicating the estimated processing time for each of the imported order candidates and the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 that it reads out. The selection menu generation unit 34 outputs the data of the generated selection menu to the order selection receiving unit 35 (step Sh6).

[0127] The order selection receiving unit 35 receives the selection menu data output by the selection menu generating unit 34, and outputs the received selection menu data to the display unit to display the selection menu (step Sh7). After the process of step Sh7, the process of step Sh8 in FIG. 20 is then performed.

[0128] The user of the area design support device 2 refers to the selection menu displayed on the display unit and selects one of the order candidates. The order selection receiving unit 35 imports data indicating the order candidate selected by the user. The order selection receiving unit 35 outputs the imported data indicating the order candidate to the visibility determination executing unit 36 ​​(step Sh8).

[0129] The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​takes in data indicating the order candidates output by the order selection receiving unit 35. The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​determines which order candidate the taken-in data indicating the order candidate indicates. The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32, and detects the execution order of the visibility determination method corresponding to the determined data indicating the order candidate (step Sh9).

[0130] (Processing of order candidate 1) When the data indicating the order candidate acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​is "order candidate 1", the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 indicates that "order candidate 1" is to execute only the map-based visibility determination method. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the visibility determination target list acquired in step Sh4 and data indicating the evaluation area to the map visibility determination unit 25. The map visibility determination unit 25 acquires the visibility determination target list and data indicating the evaluation area output by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​and starts the processing shown in FIG. 9. When the processing of the loops Ld1s to Ld1e shown in FIG. 9 is completed, the map visibility determination unit 25 outputs data indicating a combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are determined to have visibility and are stored in the internal storage area in the processing of step Sd6 to the visibility determination execution unit 36, and ends the processing (step Sh10).

[0131] (Processing of order candidate 2) 21 is a sequence diagram showing the process flow for order candidate 2. When the data indicating the order candidate acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​is "order candidate 2," the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 indicates that "order candidate 2" is to execute only the visibility determination method based on the point cloud. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the visibility determination target list acquired in step Sh4 and the point cloud data identification information to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a (step Si1).

[0132] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26a retrieves the visibility determination target list and the point cloud data identification information output by the visibility determination execution unit 36, and starts the process shown in Fig. 22 (step Si2). In the flowchart shown in Fig. 22, the same processes as those in the flowchart shown in Fig. 10 are given the same reference numerals, and different processes will be described below. If the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines "No" in step Se4, that is, if it determines that the number of counted points is not equal to or less than the threshold, it outputs the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data of the pair of visibility determination targets for which the "No" determination was made to the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​(steps Se7 and Si3).

[0133] The process of "order candidate 2" is a process that executes only the visibility determination method based on the point cloud. Therefore, even if the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​receives a set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data from the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a while performing the process of "order candidate 2", the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​discards the received set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data without executing other visibility determination processes (step Si4).

[0134] The processing of step Si4 is performed each time the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines that the number of counted points in the processing of step Se4 is not below the threshold value, and a set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data is output by the processing of steps Se7 and Si3.

[0135] When the processing of loop Le1s to Le1e shown in Figure 22 is completed, the point cloud visibility judgment unit 26a outputs data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that are determined to have visibility and are stored in an internal memory area to the visibility judgment execution unit 36 ​​(steps Se6, Si5), and terminates the processing (step Sh11).

[0136] (Processing of order candidate 3) 23 is a sequence diagram showing the process flow for order candidate 3. When the data indicating the order candidate acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​is "order candidate 3," the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 indicates that "order candidate 3" is to execute a visibility determination method based on a point cloud and a visibility determination method based on a blocking rate. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the visibility determination target list acquired in step Sh4 and the point cloud data identification information to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a (step Sj1).

[0137] The point cloud visibility determination unit 26a receives the visibility determination target list and the point cloud data identification information output by the visibility determination execution unit 36, and starts the process shown in Fig. 22 (step Sj2). If the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines "No" in step Se4, that is, if it determines that the number of counted points is not equal to or less than the threshold, it outputs the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data of the pair of visibility determination targets for which the "No" determination was made to the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​(steps Se7, Sj3).

[0138] The process of "order candidate 3" is a process of executing a visibility determination method based on a point cloud and a visibility determination method based on a shielding ratio. Therefore, when the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​receives a set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data from the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a while performing the process of "order candidate 3", the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​imports the received set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​generates a visibility determination target list including the imported set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data (step Sj4). The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the generated visibility determination target list, antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and point cloud data identification information to the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 (step Sj5).

[0139] The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 performs the process shown in Fig. 11 by taking in the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination execution unit 36, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and the point cloud data identification information (step Sj6). As a result, the process is performed by the visibility determination method based on the shielding ratio for the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a has determined to have no visibility. However, here, since the visibility determination target list taken in by the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 includes only one set of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 performs the process of steps Sf3 to Sf7 included in the loops Lf1s to Lf1e and the loops Lf2s to Lf2e only once.

[0140] The processing of steps Sj4 to Sj6 is performed each time the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines in the processing of step Se4 that the number of counted points is not below the threshold value, and a set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data is output by the processing of steps Se7 and Sj3.

[0141] 22 ends, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a outputs data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data determined to have visibility stored in an internal storage area to the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​(steps Se6, Sj7), and ends the processing. When the processing of the loops Lf1s to Lf1e shown in FIG. 11 ends, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 outputs data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data determined to have visibility stored in an internal storage area to the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​(steps Sf8, Sj8), and ends the processing (step Sh12).

[0142] (Processing of order candidate 4 or order candidate 5) 24 is a sequence diagram showing the process flow for order candidates 4 and 5. When the data indicating the order candidates acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​is "order candidate 4," the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 indicates that "order candidate 4" causes a visibility determination method based on a map and a visibility determination method based on a point cloud to be executed. When the data indicating the order candidates acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​is "order candidate 5," the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 indicates that "order candidate 5" causes a visibility determination method based on a map, a visibility determination method based on a point cloud, and a visibility determination method based on a shading rate to be executed.

[0143] Therefore, in the case of "order candidate 4" or "order candidate 5", the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the visibility determination target list acquired in step Sh4 and data indicating the evaluation area to the map visibility determination unit 25 (step Sk1). The map visibility determination unit 25 acquires the visibility determination target list and data indicating the evaluation area output by the visibility determination execution unit 36, and starts the processing shown in Fig. 9 (step Sk2). When the processing of the loop Ld1s to Ld1e shown in Fig. 9 ends, the map visibility determination unit 25 outputs data indicating a combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are determined to have visibility and are stored in the internal storage area to the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​(steps Sd6, Sk3), and ends the processing.

[0144] The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​imports data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the map visibility determination unit 25. When the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​receives data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data from the map visibility determination unit 25 while processing "order candidate 4" or "order candidate 5", the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​imports the received data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​generates a visibility determination target list including the imported combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data (step Sk4).

[0145] The visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​outputs the generated visibility determination target list and the point cloud data identification information to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a (step Sk5). Thereafter, in the case of "order candidate 4", the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​and the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a perform the processes from step Si2 of order candidate 2 shown in Fig. 21 (step Sh13). On the other hand, in the case of "order candidate 5", the visibility determination execution unit 36, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a, and the blockage rate visibility determination unit 27 perform the processes from step Sj2 of order candidate 3 shown in Fig. 23 (step Sh14).

[0146] (Processing of judgment results) When processing "sequence candidate 1," the visibility judgment execution unit 36 ​​imports data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the map visibility judgment unit 25, and writes and stores the imported data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the judgment result memory unit 37.

[0147] In the case of processing "Order Candidate 2" and "Order Candidate 4", the map visibility determination unit 25 performs visibility determination processing, and the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a performs visibility determination processing on the combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been narrowed down by determining that there is visibility. Therefore, the result that the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determines that there is visibility becomes the final result indicating that there is visibility. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​imports data indicating the combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a, and writes and stores the data indicating the imported combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the determination result storage unit 37.

[0148] In the case of processing "Order Candidate 3" and "Order Candidate 5", the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a performs visibility determination processing, and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 performs visibility determination processing for the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are determined to have no visibility. Therefore, the result of combining the result of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a determining that there is visibility and the result of the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 determining that there is visibility is the final result indicating that there is visibility. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​takes in and combines the data indicating the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data output by each of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27, and writes and stores the data indicating the combination of the combined base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data in the determination result storage unit 37 (step Sh15).

[0149] When the visibility judgment execution unit 36 ​​writes data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data to the judgment result memory unit 37, the judgment result processing unit 38 performs the above-mentioned post-processing (step Sh16) and terminates the processing.

[0150] In the visibility determination order selection device 1 of the first embodiment, the index value calculation unit 13 calculates an index value for each of a plurality of visibility determination methods for determining visibility between a base station candidate position and an evaluation position. The order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates an order constraint condition based on the index value. The visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16 selects an execution order that satisfies the order constraint condition as an order candidate from among an execution order indicating an order of execution of a plurality of visibility determination methods, which includes any one of the plurality of visibility determination methods, an execution order generated by combining a part of each of the plurality of visibility determination methods, and an execution order generated by combining all of each of the plurality of visibility determination methods, and generates a visibility determination order candidate list including the selected order candidate. This makes it possible to select an order candidate that does not impair user usability and enables implementation at low cost from among the execution orders that can be executed in the plurality of visibility determination methods when visibility determination is performed using a plurality of visibility determination methods.

[0151] More specifically, the visibility determination order selection device 1 of the first embodiment generates an order constraint condition indicating which order is rational and efficient based on the narrowing rate of each of the three visibility determination methods when three types of visibility determination methods, namely, a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a shading rate-based visibility determination method, are used. Furthermore, it is possible to finally select five order candidates from a total of 15 execution orders by adding a condition indicating a combination of visibility determination methods that need to be executed consecutively to the order constraint condition. Therefore, in the area design support device 2 in which these five orders are implemented, a compact selection menu indicating the five patterns as shown in FIG. 18 can be presented to the user. When creating the logic of the process of the visibility determination execution unit 36 ​​that selects and executes the three types of visibility determination methods, it is only necessary to create a logic for selecting and executing the five methods, so that the cost required for implementation can be reduced and the operation scale can be made implementable.

[0152] Second embodiment Next, a visibility determination order selection device 1a and an area design support device 2a according to the second embodiment will be described. In the first embodiment, the configuration targets three types of visibility determination methods, namely, a map-based visibility determination method, a point cloud-based visibility determination method, and a blocking rate-based visibility determination method, but in the second embodiment, the configuration targets four types of visibility determination methods, that is, a visibility determination method based on communication distance is added to the three types of visibility determination methods.

[0153] (Configuration of visibility determination order selection device of the second embodiment) Fig. 25 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a visibility determination order selection device 1a according to the second embodiment. In Fig. 25, the same components as those of the visibility determination order selection device 1 shown in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and different components will be described below. The visibility determination order selection device 1a includes an input processing unit 11, an index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12, an index value calculation unit 13a, an order constraint condition generation unit 14a, an order constraint condition storage unit 15a, a visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16a, and a visibility determination processing unit 20a.

[0154] The index value calculation unit 13a receives a designation of the type of visibility determination method for which an index value is to be calculated from the user of the visibility determination order selection device 1a. In the second embodiment, the user designates one, two, three, or four of four types of visibility determination methods that can be executed by the visibility determination processing unit 20a of the visibility determination order selection device 1a, that is, the visibility determination method based on communication distance, the visibility determination method based on map, the visibility determination method based on point cloud, and the visibility determination method based on shielding rate. The index value calculation unit 13a causes the visibility determination processing unit 20a to execute each of the designated visibility determination methods for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list generated by the visibility determination target list generation unit 12 for index value, and calculates an index value indicating the processing capability for each visibility determination method.

[0155] The order constraint condition generating unit 14a has a configuration for generating order constraint conditions determined based on index values, similar to the order constraint condition generating unit 14 of the first embodiment. However, the order constraint condition generating unit 14a determines order constraint conditions based on index values ​​for each of the four types of visibility assessment methods calculated by the index value calculating unit 13a. The order constraint condition storage unit 15a stores an order constraint condition table 151a including order constraint condition data generated by the order constraint condition generating unit 14a and defined order constraint condition data written from the outside.

[0156] The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a has the same configuration as the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 of the first embodiment, except for the following points. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16 of the first embodiment performs processing in accordance with the contents of the order constraint condition table 151 stored in the order constraint condition storage unit 15. In contrast, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a of the second embodiment performs processing in accordance with the contents of the order constraint condition table 151a stored in the order constraint condition storage unit 15a.

[0157] The visibility determination processing unit 20a includes a map data memory unit 21, a point cloud data memory unit 22, a communication parameter memory unit 23, a map visibility determination unit 25, a point cloud visibility determination unit 26, a coverage rate visibility determination unit 27, and a communication distance visibility determination unit 28.

[0158] The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 determines whether the distance between the base station candidate position and the evaluation position is the received power P R is the required receiving sensitivity P RS The presence or absence of line of sight is determined based on whether the communication distance satisfies the above.

[0159] (Processing by the visibility determination order selection device of the second embodiment) Like the visibility determination order selection device 1 of the first embodiment, the visibility determination order selection device 1a of the second embodiment also performs processing in the procedure shown in the flowchart of Fig. 6. Below, processing that is the same in the first and second embodiments is indicated to that effect, and details of different processing are described with reference to Fig. 6.

[0160] With regard to the processing of steps Sa1 to Sa4, the visibility determination order selection device 1a of the second embodiment performs the same processing as the visibility determination order selection device 1 of the first embodiment. In the subroutine for calculating an index value for each visibility determination method in step Sa5, the visibility determination order selection device 1a performs the processing of steps Sc1 and Sc2 during loop Lc1s to Lc1e shown in Fig. 8 using each of the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, and the blocking rate visibility determination unit 27, and then performs the processing of steps Sc1 and Sc2 for the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 as the fourth processing of loop Lc1s to Lc1e. Hereinafter, the processing performed in step Sc1 for the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 will be described with reference to Fig. 26.

[0161] The index value calculation unit 13a outputs the imported line of sight determination target list and antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the line of sight determination target list to the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28, thereby performing processing of step Sc1 corresponding to the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28, i.e., the processing shown in Figure 26.

[0162] (Processing for determining visibility based on communication distance) The communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 receives the line of sight determination target list output by the index value calculation unit 13a and the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the line of sight determination target list (step Sm1). The communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 selects any one of the base station candidate position data included in the received line of sight determination target list as the processing target base station candidate position data.

[0163] The communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 reads out the frequency f [GHz] of the radio wave stored in the frequency field of the communication parameter table 231 of the communication parameter storage unit 23 shown in FIG. 2, and substitutes the read-out frequency f [GHz] into the formula (1) to calculate the wavelength λ [m] of the radio wave. The communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 calculates the transmission power P T[dBm] and the receiving antenna gain G of the mobile terminal station R [dBi] and the required receiving sensitivity P RS When the antenna pattern data corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data indicates an azimuth plane, that is, a horizontal plane, the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 reads out the maximum transmission antenna gain (horizontal plane) G [dBm] of the base station device from the communication parameter table 231. TH When the antenna pattern data corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data indicates an elevation angle plane, that is, a vertical plane, the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 reads out the maximum transmission antenna gain (vertical plane) G of the base station device from the communication parameter table 231. TV Since one type of antenna pattern data is associated with each of the processing target base station candidate position data, the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 reads out G TH [dBi] and G TV Therefore, in the following description, either one of the maximum transmission antenna gains read by the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 is referred to as the maximum transmission antenna gain G T It is called [dBi].

[0164] The communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 substitutes the calculated wavelength λ [m] into the formula (2) for calculating the propagation loss amount L [dB], and then reads out the transmission power P T [dBm] and maximum transmit antenna gain G T [dBi] and receiving antenna gain G R [dBi] and the required receiving sensitivity P RS Based on the propagation loss amount L [dBm] and the propagation loss amount L [dB], the maximum distance d [m] that satisfies the following equation (6) is calculated. The communication distance line-of-sight determination unit 28 sets the calculated distance d [m] as a reference distance (step Sm2).

[0165]

number

[0166] The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 extracts all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data including the selected processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list. The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 selects one combination from the extracted combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 determines whether the distance between the position indicated by the selected base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data is equal to or less than a reference distance (step Sm3).

[0167] If the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 determines that the distance between the position indicated by the base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data is less than or equal to the reference distance (step Sm3, Yes), it writes and stores the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are the subject of line of sight determination in an internal memory area (step Sm4).

[0168] After the process of step Sm4, or when it is determined that the distance between the position indicated by the base station candidate position data and the position indicated by the evaluation position data is not equal to or less than the reference distance (step Sm3, No), the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 selects one pair that is not the judgment target from among the combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the processes of steps Sm3 and Sm4 again. As a result, the process of visibility determination based on the communication distance is performed for all combinations corresponding to the processing target base station candidate position data (loop Lm2s to Lm2e).

[0169] When the process of loop Lm2s to Lm2e for the processing target base station candidate position data is completed, the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 selects other base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data from the visibility determination target list as the next processing target base station candidate position data, and performs the process of step Sm2 and the process of loop Lm2s to Lm2e for the selected processing target base station candidate position data. By repeating this process until there is no base station candidate position data that has not been selected as processing target base station candidate position data, the visibility determination process based on the communication distance is performed for all combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list (loop Lm1s to Lm1e).

[0170] The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 outputs data indicating a combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are determined to have visibility and that are written in an internal storage area to the index value calculation unit 13a (step Sm5). This ends the process of step Sc1, which corresponds to the process of determining visibility based on the communication distance.

[0171] In the process of step Sc2 corresponding to the process of the visibility determination based on the communication distance, the index value calculation unit 13a takes in data indicating a combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data output by the communication distance visibility determination unit 28. The index value calculation unit 13a counts the number of combinations of the taken in data, and sets the counted number as Nb4. The index value calculation unit 13a counts the number of combinations of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list, and sets the counted number as Na. The index value calculation unit 13a divides Nb4 by Na to calculate the narrowing down ratio Rs4, and sets the calculated narrowing down ratio Rs4 as the index value of the visibility determination method based on the communication distance. As a result, the index value calculation unit 13a ends the process of the loop Lc1s to Lc1e shown in FIG. 8, and in the process of step Sc3, outputs the calculated index value for each visibility determination method to the order constraint condition generation unit 14a, and ends the subroutine for calculating the index value for each visibility determination method.

[0172] Returning to FIG. 6, in the process of step Sa6, the order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates order constraint conditions based on the index values for each perspective determination method output by the index value calculation unit 13a, in the same manner as the order constraint condition generation unit 14 in the first embodiment. For example, the order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates order constraint conditions indicating that the index values for each perspective determination method are to be executed in order from the perspective determination method with a smaller value. The order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates order constraint conditions indicating that the perspective determination method with the largest index value for each perspective determination method is not to be executed alone.

[0173] In the second embodiment, different from the first embodiment, the order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates order constraint conditions indicating that the perspective determination method with the smallest index value for each perspective determination method is not to be executed alone and order constraint conditions indicating that it is to be executed at the head of the execution order. The order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates an order constraint condition table 151a including the generated order constraint conditions in the order constraint condition storage unit 15a.

[0174] Here, assuming that the narrowing rates Rs1, Rs2, Rs3, Rs4, which are the index values for each perspective determination method calculated by the index value calculation unit 13a, have a relationship of Rs4 < Rs1 < Rs2 < Rs3. In this case, as shown in the order constraint condition table 151a shown in FIG. 27, the order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates, as an order constraint condition, a first condition indicated by "communication distance → map → point group → shielding rate", indicating that the perspective determination methods based on communication distance, map, point group, and shielding rate are to be executed in this order. The order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates, as an order constraint condition, a second condition indicated by "communication distance, shielding rate", indicating that the perspective determination method based on communication distance with the smallest narrowing rate and the perspective determination method based on shielding rate with the largest narrowing rate are not to be executed alone. The order constraint condition generation unit 14a generates, as an order constraint condition, a third condition indicated by "communication distance", indicating that the perspective determination method based on communication distance with the smallest narrowing rate is to be executed at the head of the execution order.

[0175] At the timing of step Sa7, the user of the visibility determination order selection device 1a operates the visibility determination order selection device 1a to write and add, as a fourth condition, "point cloud → occlusion ratio", which indicates a condition that a visibility determination method based on occlusion ratio is executed consecutively after a visibility determination method based on point cloud, which is a predetermined prescribed order constraint condition, to the order constraint condition table 151a of the order constraint condition storage unit 15. As a result, the order constraint condition table 151a shown in FIG. 27 is generated.

[0176] When the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a receives a start instruction from the user of the visibility determination order selection device 1a in the process of step Sa8, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a generates a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the subroutine for selecting order candidates shown in FIG. 28 by referring to the first condition, the second condition, the third condition, and the fourth condition included in the order constraint condition table 151a of the order constraint condition storage unit 15a. In FIG. 28, steps Sg10, Sg11, Sg12, and Sg17 are predetermined processes. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a generates a flowchart by adding the judgment processes of steps Sg13, Sg14, Sg15, and Sg16 for judging each of the first condition, the second condition, the third condition, and the fourth condition to the predetermined processes of steps Sg10, Sg11, Sg12, and Sg17. In the process of step Sa9, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a starts the subroutine for selecting order candidates shown by the generated flowchart of FIG. 28.

[0177] (Subroutine processing by visibility determination order candidate list generation unit) The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a is specified with four types of visibility determination methods: a visibility determination method based on communication distance, a visibility determination method based on a map, a visibility determination method based on a point cloud, and a visibility determination method based on a blocking rate. The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a generates all possible execution orders from the four specified visibility determination methods. That is, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a generates all execution orders in which each of the four specified visibility determination methods is executed alone, in combination with some of them, and in combination with all of them (step Sg10). The number of execution order patterns generated by the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a is 64 in total, as shown in the following formula (7).

[0178]

number

[0179] The visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a judges whether all of the generated 64 patterns of execution orders have been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg11). When the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a judges that all of the generated 64 patterns of execution orders have not been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg11, No), it selects a pattern that has not yet been subjected to the judgment process (step Sg12) and performs the judgment process of step Sg13 in which it is judged whether the selected pattern satisfies the first condition.

[0180] When the result of the determination process in step Sg13 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the first condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a next performs a determination process in step Sg14 in which it determines whether or not the second condition is satisfied. When the result of the determination process in step Sg14 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the second condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a next performs a determination process in step Sg15 in which it determines whether or not the third condition is satisfied. When the result of the determination process in step Sg15 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the third condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a next performs a determination process in step Sg16 in which it determines whether or not the fourth condition is satisfied. When the result of the determination process in step Sg16 is "Yes", that is, when it is determined that the fourth condition is satisfied, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a writes and stores the execution order indicated in the pattern to be determined as an order candidate in an internal storage area (step Sg17). When the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a judges "No" in the judgment processing of steps Sg13, Sg14, Sg15, and Sg16, the process proceeds to step Sg11.

[0181] When it is determined that all of the generated 64 execution order patterns have been subjected to the determination process (Yes in step Sg11), the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a ends the subroutine for selecting order candidates.

[0182] As a result, the visibility determination order candidate list generating unit 16a selects five patterns shown in FIG. 29 from the 64 patterns as patterns that satisfy all of the first condition, the second condition, the third condition, and the fourth condition.

[0183] Returning to Figure 6, in the processing of step Sa10, the visibility determination order candidate list generation unit 16a generates a visibility determination order candidate list including data indicating the five order candidates shown in Figure 29 stored in an internal memory area, outputs the generated visibility determination order candidate list to the outside, and terminates the processing.

[0184] (Configuration of the area design support device according to the second embodiment) Fig. 30 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an area design support device 2a implemented based on a visibility determination order candidate list output by the visibility determination order selection device 1a when a user specifies four types of visibility determination methods in the visibility determination order selection device 1a. Here, the four types of visibility determination methods specified in the visibility determination order selection device 1a are a visibility determination method based on communication distance, a visibility determination method based on a map, a visibility determination method based on a point cloud, and a visibility determination method based on a blocking rate. In Fig. 30, the same components as those in the visibility determination order selection device 1 shown in Fig. 1, the area design support device 2 shown in Fig. 15, and the visibility determination order selection device 1a shown in Fig. 25 are given the same reference numerals, and different components will be described below.

[0185] The area design support device 2a includes an input processing unit 11, a map data memory unit 21, a point cloud data memory unit 22, a communication parameter memory unit 23, a map visibility determination unit 25, a point cloud visibility determination unit 26a, a shielding rate visibility determination unit 27, a communication distance visibility determination unit 28, a visibility determination target list generation unit 31, an implementation-dependent data memory unit 32a, a predicted processing time calculation unit 33, a selection menu generation unit 34, an order selection receiving unit 35, a visibility determination execution unit 36a, a determination result memory unit 37 and a determination result processing unit 38.

[0186] The implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a stores in advance a predicted processing time calculation table 311a shown in Fig. 31 and a visibility determination order candidate list table 312a shown in Fig. 32. The predicted processing time calculation table 311a is a table in which records related to a visibility determination method based on communication distance are added to the predicted processing time calculation table 311 of the first embodiment shown in Fig. 16. That is, "communication distance" indicating the visibility determination method based on communication distance is added to the "type of visibility determination method" item, and δ seconds are added to the "processing time (seconds)" item as the processing time for the "communication distance".

[0187] Here, δ seconds, which is the processing time of the visibility assessment method based on communication distance, is the processing time measured by the same procedure as in the first embodiment. For example, for one arbitrarily determined combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, the visibility assessment process is performed using the communication distance visibility assessment unit 28 provided in the visibility assessment order selection device 1a, and the time from the start to the end of the visibility assessment process is measured, thereby obtaining δ seconds, which is the processing time of the visibility assessment method based on communication distance.

[0188] The visibility determination order candidate list table 312a has the items of "order candidate", "1st execution", "2nd execution", "3rd execution", and "4th execution". In the "order candidate" item, for example, a symbol with the letter "A" with consecutive numbers added, such as A1, A2, A3, ..., is written in advance according to the number of existing records. In the items of "1st execution", "2nd execution", "3rd execution", and "4th execution", the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list shown in FIG. 29 output by the visibility determination order selection device 1a are transcribed in advance.

[0189] The visibility determination execution unit 36a refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a, detects the execution order of the visibility determination methods corresponding to the data indicating the order candidates output by the order selection receiving unit 35, and selects and executes the map visibility determination unit 25, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a, the obstruction rate visibility determination unit 27 and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 in accordance with the detected execution order of the visibility determination methods to perform the visibility determination process.

[0190] (Processing by the area design support device of the second embodiment) In the area design supporting device 2a of the second embodiment, like the area design supporting device 2 of the first embodiment, first, the process of the flowchart shown in Fig. 19 is performed. In the second embodiment, after the process of the flowchart shown in Fig. 19, the process of the flowchart shown in Fig. 34 is performed instead of the process of the flowchart shown in Fig. 20.

[0191] Hereinafter, the processes that are the same in the first and second embodiments will be indicated and the details of the different processes will be described. In the processes of steps Sh1 to Sh4, the area design support device 2a of the second embodiment performs the same processes as the area design support device 2 of the first embodiment.

[0192] In the process of step Sh5, the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 imports the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination target list generation unit 31, and counts the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the imported visibility determination target list. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 refers to the predicted processing time calculation table 311a in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a, and multiplies the counted number by the processing time for each of the four types of visibility determination methods shown in the predicted processing time calculation table 311a to calculate the predicted processing time for each of the four types of visibility determination methods. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a, and calculates the predicted processing time for each of the order candidates by accumulating the calculated predicted processing time for each of the four types of visibility determination methods according to the visibility determination method included in each of the order candidates in the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a. The predicted processing time calculation unit 33 outputs the calculated predicted processing time for each of the order candidates to the selection menu generation unit 34.

[0193] In the processing of step Sh6, the selection menu generation unit 34 takes in data indicating the predicted processing time for each of the order candidates output by the predicted processing time calculation unit 33. The selection menu generation unit 34 reads out the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a. The selection menu generation unit 34 generates the selection menu shown in FIG. 33 based on the data indicating the predicted processing time for each of the taken-in order candidates and the contents of the visibility determination order candidate list table 312 that it reads out. The selection menu generation unit 34 outputs the generated selection menu data to the order selection receiving unit 35.

[0194] In the selection menu shown in FIG. 33, the contents of the items "Order candidate", "First execution", "Second execution", "Third execution", and "Fourth execution" are the same as the contents of the items "Order candidate", "First execution", "Second execution", and "Third execution" in the prospect determination order candidate list table 312a shown in FIG. 32. In the "Predicted processing time (seconds)" item, the predicted processing time calculated by the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 for each order candidate is written. For example, when the prospect determination target list includes 100 combinations, the predicted processing time of the order candidate A1 is 100×(α+δ) (seconds), the predicted processing time of the order candidate A2 is 100×(β+δ) (seconds), the predicted processing time of the order candidate A3 is 100×(β+γ+δ) (seconds), the predicted processing time of the order candidate A4 is 100×(α+β+δ) (seconds), and the predicted processing time of the order candidate A5 is 100×(α+β+γ+δ) (seconds). However, similarly to the first embodiment, the processing time for each of α, β, γ, and δ includes an error, and furthermore, when multiple visibility assessment methods are executed, the visibility assessment method executed later is executed based on the assessment result of the visibility assessment method executed immediately before. Therefore, the number of combinations to be assessed may decrease, and the above-mentioned processing prediction time for each order candidate includes an error and is merely a guideline.

[0195] The process of step Sh7 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and is performed by the order selection receiving unit 35. After the process of step Sh7, the process of step Sn1 in FIG. 34 is then performed.

[0196] A user of the area design support device 2 refers to the selection menu displayed on the display unit and performs an operation to select data indicating one of the order candidates. The order selection receiving unit 35 imports the data indicating the order candidates selected by the user. The order selection receiving unit 35 outputs the imported data indicating the order candidates to the visibility determination executing unit 36a (step Sn1).

[0197] The visibility determination execution unit 36a takes in data indicating the order candidates output by the order selection reception unit 35. The visibility determination execution unit 36a determines which order candidate the taken-in data indicating the order candidate indicates. The visibility determination execution unit 36a refers to the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a in the implementation-dependent data storage unit 32a, and detects the execution order of the visibility determination method corresponding to the determined data indicating the order candidate (step Sn2).

[0198] (Processing of order candidate A1) When the data indicating the order candidate acquired by the visibility determination execution unit 36a is the "order candidate A1", the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a indicates that the "order candidate A1" executes the visibility determination method based on the map after the visibility determination method based on the communication distance. Therefore, the visibility determination execution unit 36a outputs the visibility determination target list acquired in step Sh4 and the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list to the communication distance visibility determination unit 28. The communication distance visibility determination unit 28 acquires the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination execution unit 36a and the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and starts the process shown in FIG. 26. When the process of the loop Lm1s to Lm1e shown in FIG. 26 ends, the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 outputs data indicating the combination of the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that are determined to have visibility and are stored in the internal storage area in the process of step Sm5 to the visibility determination execution unit 36a, and ends the process (step Sn3).

[0199] When the visibility determination execution unit 36a receives data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data from the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 while processing the "sequence candidate A1", the visibility determination execution unit 36a imports the received data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36a generates a visibility determination target list including the imported combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36a outputs the generated visibility determination target list and data indicating the evaluation area to the map visibility determination unit 25 (step Sn4). Thereafter, the same process as step Sh10 shown in FIG. 20 of the first embodiment is performed (step Sn5).

[0200] (Processing of order candidate A2) When the data indicating the order candidate imported by the visibility determination execution unit 36a is the "order candidate A2," the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a indicates that the "order candidate A2" is to execute the visibility determination method based on the point cloud after the visibility determination method based on the communication distance. Therefore, the same process as step Sn3 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 (step Sn6).

[0201] When the visibility determination execution unit 36a receives data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data from the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 while processing "sequence candidate A2", the visibility determination execution unit 36a imports the received data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36a generates a visibility determination target list including the imported combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data. The visibility determination execution unit 36a outputs the generated visibility determination target list and point cloud data identification information to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a (step Sn7). Thereafter, the same process as step Sh11 shown in FIG. 20 of the first embodiment is performed (step Sn8).

[0202] (Processing of order candidate A3) When the data indicating the order candidate imported by the visibility determination execution unit 36a is the "order candidate A3", the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a indicates that the "order candidate A3" is to execute the visibility determination method based on the communication distance, the visibility determination method based on the point cloud, and the visibility determination method based on the shielding rate in that order. Therefore, the same process as step Sn3 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 (step Sn9), and the same process as step Sn7 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a (step Sn10). After that, the same process as step Sh12 shown in FIG. 20 of the first embodiment is performed (step Sn11).

[0203] (Processing of order candidate A4) When the data indicating the order candidate imported by the visibility determination execution unit 36a is "order candidate A4", the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a indicates that the "order candidate A4" is to execute the visibility determination method based on the communication distance, the visibility determination method based on the map, and the visibility determination method based on the point cloud in that order. Therefore, the same process as step Sn3 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 (step Sn12), and the same process as step Sn4 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a (step Sn13). After that, the same process as step Sh13 shown in FIG. 20 of the first embodiment is performed (step Sn14).

[0204] (Processing of order candidate A5) When the data indicating the order candidate imported by the visibility determination execution unit 36a is "order candidate A5", the visibility determination order candidate list table 312a indicates that the "order candidate A5" is to execute the visibility determination method based on the communication distance, the visibility determination method based on the map, the visibility determination method based on the point cloud, and the visibility determination method based on the blocking rate in that order. Therefore, the same process as step Sn3 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 (step Sn15), and the same process as step Sn4 is performed by the visibility determination execution unit 36a (step Sn16). After that, the same process as step Sh14 shown in FIG. 20 of the first embodiment is performed (step Sn17).

[0205] (Processing of judgment results) In the case of processing "sequence candidate A1", the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 performs line of sight determination processing, and the map line of sight determination unit 25 performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. Therefore, the result that the map line of sight determination unit 25 determines that there is line of sight becomes the final result indicating that there is line of sight. Therefore, the line of sight determination execution unit 36a retrieves data indicating the combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the map line of sight determination unit 25, and writes and stores the retrieved data indicating the combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the determination result storage unit 37 (step Sn18).

[0206] In the case of processing "sequence candidate A2", the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 performs line of sight determination processing, and the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. Therefore, the result that the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a has determined that there is line of sight is the final result indicating that there is line of sight. In the case of processing "sequence candidate A4", the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 performs line of sight determination processing, and the map line of sight determination unit 25 performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. Furthermore, the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. Therefore, the result that the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a has determined that there is line of sight is the final result indicating that there is line of sight. Therefore, in the case of "order candidate A2" and "order candidate A4," the visibility judgment execution unit 36a imports data indicating the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the point cloud visibility judgment unit 26a, and writes and stores the data indicating the imported combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the judgment result memory unit 37.

[0207] In the case of processing "sequence candidate A3", the communication distance line of sight determination unit 28 performs line of sight determination processing, and the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. In addition, the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is no line of sight, and the shielding rate line of sight determination unit 27 performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. In addition, the point cloud line of sight determination unit 26a performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight, and the shielding rate line of sight determination unit 27 performs line of sight determination processing on the combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that has been narrowed down by determining that there is line of sight. Therefore, the result of combining the result of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a's determination that there is visibility with the result of the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27's determination that there is visibility is the final result indicating that there is visibility. Therefore, in the case of "order candidate A3" and "order candidate A5", the visibility determination execution unit 36a takes in and combines data indicating a combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data output by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a and the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27, and writes and stores the data indicating the combined combination of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the determination result storage unit 37.

[0208] The determination result processing unit 38 performs the same process as in the first embodiment, that is, the same process as step Sh16 shown in FIG. 20 (step Sn19), and ends the process.

[0209] In the visibility determination order selection device 1a of the second embodiment described above, assuming that four types of visibility determination methods, namely, a visibility determination method based on a communication distance, a visibility determination method based on a map, a visibility determination method based on a point cloud, and a visibility determination method based on a blocking rate, are used, an order constraint condition is generated that indicates which execution order is rational and efficient based on a narrowing down rate that is an index value of the four types of visibility determination methods. After adding a condition indicating a combination of visibility determination methods that need to be executed consecutively to the generated order constraint condition, it is possible to finally select five order candidates from a total of 64 execution orders. Therefore, in the area design support device 2a in which these five orders are implemented, a compact selection menu showing the five patterns as shown in FIG. 33 can be presented to the user. When creating the logic of the process of the visibility determination execution unit 36a that selects and executes the four types of visibility determination methods, it is only necessary to create logic that selects and executes the five methods, so that the cost required for implementation can be reduced and the operation scale can be made implementable. Therefore, in the second embodiment, as in the first embodiment, when performing visibility assessment using multiple visibility assessment methods, it is possible to select a candidate order from among the orders that can be executed using the multiple visibility assessment methods, which does not impair usability for the user and enables implementation at low cost.

[0210] In the first and second embodiments, the index value calculation unit 13, 13a calculates the narrowing rate for each visibility determination method as the index value. In contrast, the index value calculation unit 13, 13a may calculate the amount of processing required for each of the multiple visibility determination methods as the index value instead of the narrowing rate. Here, the amount of processing may be, for example, the processing time for each visibility determination method or the processing load.

[0211] For example, when applying the processing time of each visibility assessment method as the magnitude of processing, in the first embodiment, the index value calculation unit 13 measures the processing time for each combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility assessment target list generated by the visibility assessment target list generation unit 12 for index value, for each visibility assessment method, in the processing of step Sa5 in FIG. 6. For example, if the visibility assessment target list includes 100 combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, the index value calculation unit 13 measures 100 processing times for each visibility assessment method. Here, the index value calculation unit 13 calculates α as the processing time of the map visibility assessment unit 25 for each of the 100 combinations. 1 ,α 2 ,…,α 100 Measure the processing time of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 and set β 1 ,β 2 ,…,β 100 Measure the processing time of the blockage rate visibility determination unit 27 and set γ 1 ,γ 2 ,…,γ 100 In this case, for example, the index value calculation unit 13 calculates an index value αs of the map-based visibility determination method by the following formula (8), calculates an index value βs of the point cloud-based visibility determination method by the following formula (9), and calculates an index value γs of the shielding rate-based visibility determination method by the following formula (10).

[0212]

number

[0213]

number

[0214]

number

[0215] When generating an order constraint condition in the processing of step Sa6 in FIG. 6, the order constraint condition generation unit 14 generates the order constraint condition using index values ​​αs, βs, and γs, which are processing times, instead of index values ​​Rs1, Rs2, and Rs3, which are narrowing down rates.

[0216] In the second embodiment, in addition to the above-mentioned index values ​​αs, βs, and γs, the index value calculation unit 13a calculates Δ 1 , δ 2 ,…,δ 100 and calculates an index value δs of the visibility determination method based on the communication distance by the following formula (11). In this case, when generating the order constraint condition in the process of step Sa6 in FIG. 6, the order constraint condition generating unit 14a generates the order constraint condition by using the index values ​​αs, βs, γs, and δs which are the processing times instead of the index values ​​Rs1, Rs2, Rs3, and Rs4 which are the narrowing down rates.

[0217]

number

[0218] The index value calculation unit 13, 13a may calculate both the narrowing rate and the size of the processing as index values. In this case, the order constraint condition generation unit 14, 14a may generate the order constraint condition based on both the narrowing rate and the size of the processing. For example, in the second embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, a rule is separately defined for generating the order constraint condition that the visibility determination method with the smallest narrowing rate is placed at the top of the execution order and is not allowed to be executed alone. For example, in order to generalize this process, a rule is defined that the visibility determination method with the smallest narrowing rate and a value indicating the size of the processing equal to or less than a threshold is placed at the top of the execution order and is not allowed to be executed alone. In this case, by adjusting the threshold to an appropriate value, the visibility determination method based on the map may be determined to have the smallest amount of narrowing but the value indicating the size of the processing exceeds the threshold, so that it does not need to be placed at the top of the execution order and may be executed alone, and the visibility determination method based on the communication distance may be determined to have the smallest amount of narrowing and the value indicating the size of the processing equal to or less than a threshold, so that it is placed at the top of the execution order and is not allowed to be executed alone. In this way, the visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a of the first and second embodiments can be realized in one device by simply adjusting the threshold value to an appropriate value. In the first and second embodiments, a rule is defined to prevent the visibility determination method with the largest narrowing rate from being executed alone. However, this rule may also be determined to result in a determination that the visibility determination method with the largest narrowing rate may be executed alone if the value indicating the magnitude of processing is equal to or less than the threshold value, and that the method is not executed alone if the value indicating the magnitude of processing exceeds the threshold value. In this way, by using both the narrowing rate and the value indicating the magnitude of processing, more complex rules can be determined in advance in the order constraint condition generation unit 14, 14a as rules for generating order constraint conditions, and the order constraint condition generation unit 14, 14a can generate various order constraint conditions more flexibly.

[0219] In the first and second embodiments described above, in the process of step Sa7 shown in Fig. 6, the order constraint condition table 151, 151a of the order constraint condition storage unit 15, 15a of the visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a is operated by the user to add specified order constraint condition data of "point cloud -> occlusion ratio" indicating a condition (hereinafter referred to as "linkage condition") that a visibility determination method based on occlusion ratio is executed consecutively after a visibility determination method based on point cloud, which is a predetermined specified order constraint condition. In response to this, the order constraint condition generation unit 14, 14a may be configured to generate an order constraint condition that consecutively executes visibility determination methods that perform visibility determination processing using the same data. For example, if a rule is established that visibility assessment methods using point cloud data are executed consecutively, the order constraint condition generating unit 14, 14a generates order constraint conditions of "point cloud -> shading ratio" or "shading ratio -> point cloud" when generating the order constraint condition table 151, 151a, selects "point cloud -> shading ratio" according to the order indicated by the first condition, and adds "point cloud -> shading ratio" as a linked condition to the order constraint condition table 151, 151a as one of the order constraint conditions. In this way, it becomes unnecessary to perform the manual processing of step Sa7, and it becomes unnecessary to prepare the specified order constraint condition data in advance.

[0220] In the second embodiment, the visibility determination method based on the communication distance is always performed first, so in the process shown in FIG. 34, after the determination process of step Sn2, the processes of steps Sn3, Sn6, Sn9, Sn12, and Sn15, which are the same process as the process of the visibility determination based on the communication distance, are performed. In contrast, instead of performing the processes of steps Sn3, Sn6, Sn9, Sn12, and Sn15 after the determination process of step Sn2, the visibility determination process based on the communication distance may be performed after the process of step Sh4 in FIG. 19, which is performed before the process of step Sn2. That is, in the process of step Sh4, the visibility determination execution unit 36a may cause the communication distance visibility determination unit 28 to perform the visibility determination process shown in FIG. 26 at the timing when the visibility determination execution unit 36a retrieves the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination target list generation unit 31, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, the data indicating the evaluation area, and the point cloud data identification information. By doing this, the processing estimated time calculation unit 33, the selection menu generation unit 34, and the order selection receiving unit 35 can perform the processing of visibility judgment based on communication processing in parallel while performing the processing of steps Sh5 to Sh7 and step Sn1, so it is possible to shorten the time required from when the user selects the order candidate to be used in the processing of step Sn1 to when the judgment result is displayed in the processing of step Sn19.

[0221] In the first and second embodiments described above, the index value calculation units 13 and 13a are configured to count the number of combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination list generated by the index value visibility determination target list generation unit 12 and calculate Na for each process of step Sc2 that is performed multiple times in the repeated process of loop Lc1s to Lc1e shown in Fig. 8. In contrast, the index value calculation units 13 and 13a may store Na calculated in step Sc2 of the process of the visibility determination based on the initial map in an internal storage area, and may read Na from the internal storage area and calculate the narrowing down ratio in the subsequent step Sc2 instead of calculating Na again.

[0222] In the first and second embodiments, the area design support device 2, 2a includes a shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27. As described above, when the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a included in the area design support device 2, 2a determines "No" in the process of step Se4 in FIG. 22, it outputs only one set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data in the process of step Se7. Therefore, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 performs the process for one set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, that is, the process of steps Sf3 to Sf7 included in loops Lf1s to Lf1e and loops Lf2s to Lf2e, only once, and the repeated processes of loops Lf1s to Lf1e and loops Lf2s to Lf2e are not necessary. Therefore, the area design support device 2, 2a may include a shielding ratio visibility determination unit that performs the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 35, which executes steps Sf1 to Sf8 of the process of FIG. 11 only once, instead of the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27.

[0223] In the above first and second embodiments, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a included in the area design support device 2, 2a is configured to output a set of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data determined to be "No" in the determination process of step Se4 in step Se7 of FIG. 22. Therefore, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a and the shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 are configured to operate in parallel. In contrast, in the area design support device 2, 2a, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 included in the visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a may be used instead of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a. In this case, the visibility determination execution unit 36, 36a stores the visibility determination target list output to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 in an internal storage area. The visibility determination execution unit 36, 36a takes in data indicating a combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data determined to be visible by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 in the process of step Se6 of FIG. 10. The visibility determination execution units 36, 36a detect combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have not been determined to have visibility by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, based on the combinations of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data that have been taken in and the combinations of the base station candidate position data and evaluation position data included in the visibility determination target list output to the point cloud visibility determination unit 26 stored in an internal storage area. The visibility determination execution units 36, 36a generate a visibility determination list including the detected combinations of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, and output the generated visibility determination list, antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and point cloud data identification information to the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27. The shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 takes in the visibility determination target list output by the visibility determination execution units 36, 36a, the antenna pattern data associated with the base station candidate position data included in the visibility determination target list, and the point cloud data identification information, and performs the process shown in FIG. 11. In this case, if the visibility assessment target list includes a combination of multiple base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, the coverage rate visibility assessment unit 27 will perform visibility assessment based on the coverage rate for each of the multiple combinations by processing loops Lf1s to Lf1e and loops Lf2s to Lf2e.This allows the processing of visibility determination based on the shielding ratio to be performed on the base station candidate position data and the evaluation position data that have not been determined to have visibility by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, i.e., have been determined to have no visibility. In this way, the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 may perform processing after the processing of the point cloud visibility determination unit 26a is completed. In this way, for example, the visibility determination execution unit 36, 36a does not need to perform the processing of step Si4 shown in FIG. 21, and it is only necessary to perform the processing of steps Sj4, Sj5 shown in FIG. 23 once, and the number of times that the shielding ratio visibility determination unit 27 is made to perform the visibility determination processing is only once. It is also possible to implement the area design support device 2, 2a by utilizing the visibility determination processing unit 20, 20a provided in the visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a.

[0224] In the first and second embodiments described above, the map visibility determination unit 25 performs visibility determination based on the outlines of the buildings shown on a two-dimensional plane in the map data, without considering the heights of the buildings. In contrast, for example, when the map data stored in the map data storage unit 21 includes data indicating the heights of the buildings 52-55, the base station candidate position data of the base station device 40 installed on the utility pole 51 includes data indicating the height. Therefore, the map visibility determination unit 25 may perform visibility determination based on the line of sight detection, taking into account the vertical cross section of the outlines indicated by the heights of the outlines of the buildings 52-55. This enables the map visibility determination unit 25 to perform visibility determination processing with higher accuracy.

[0225] In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, 26a performs visibility determination based on the number of points of the point cloud data present within a cylinder formed from the Fresnel zone. In contrast, as the visibility determination using point cloud data performed by the point cloud visibility determination unit 26, 26a, the visibility determination method disclosed in Patent Document 2 may be applied, that is, a method of determining the presence or absence of visibility based on the shielding rate obtained by superimposing point cloud data present on multiple circular cross sections within the Fresnel zone, assuming a Fresnel zone between a base station and a mobile terminal station, using point cloud data present in the space between the base station and the mobile terminal station.

[0226] In the first and second embodiments, the input processing unit 11, when receiving the point cloud data identification information in the process of step Sb4, directly performs the process of determining the consistency of the input data in step Sb5, as shown in Fig. 7. On the other hand, when the process of step Sb4 ends, a message may be displayed on the display unit to prompt the user to select whether or not to start the determination process of step Sb5, and the process of step Sb5 may be performed after receiving a start instruction given by the user's operation.

[0227] In the above first and second embodiments, the index value visibility determination target list generating unit 12, the visibility determination target list generating unit 31, or the input processing unit 11 defines the evaluation area by dividing the area defined as the evaluation area into square areas of a predetermined size. In contrast, when dividing the evaluation area, the number of divisions, i.e., the number of meshes, may be determined in advance, and the evaluation area may be divided into square areas of the same size, with the predetermined number of meshes.

[0228] In the above first and second embodiments, the receiving antenna gain and the required receiving sensitivity of the mobile terminal station device are fixed values ​​in the communication parameter table 231 of the communication parameter storage unit 23. This means that the receiving antenna gain and the required receiving sensitivity of the mobile terminal station device installed at each of the multiple evaluation positions are all common. In contrast, when installing mobile terminal station devices with different performance depending on the evaluation position, the receiving antenna gain and the required receiving sensitivity are stored in advance for each mobile terminal station device with different performance in the communication parameter table 231. In this case, information indicating the performance of the receiving antenna gain and the required receiving sensitivity of the mobile terminal station device installed at the evaluation position needs to be associated with each evaluation position, and the shielding rate visibility determination unit 27 and the communication distance visibility determination unit 28, when performing visibility determination for each combination of base station candidate position data and evaluation position data, perform visibility determination by referring to the receiving antenna gain and the required receiving sensitivity associated with the evaluation position data.

[0229] In the first and second embodiments, the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 of the area design support device 2, 2a calculates the predicted processing time for each order candidate by accumulating the predicted processing time for each calculated visibility determination method. In contrast, when the index value calculation unit 13, 13a of the visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a calculates a narrowing down ratio as an index value, the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 may calculate the predicted processing time for each order candidate taking into account the narrowing down ratio calculated by the index value calculation unit 13, 13a. For example, in the case of the order candidate 5 in the first embodiment, when the visibility determination target list includes 100 combinations, in the first embodiment, the predicted processing time calculation unit 33 calculates the predicted processing time for the order candidate 5 as 100×(α+β+γ) (seconds). In this case, if the narrowing down rate of the map-based visibility assessment method calculated by the index value calculation unit 13 is Rs1 and the narrowing down rate of the point cloud-based visibility assessment method is Rs2, the selection menu generation unit 34 may calculate the predicted processing time of order candidate 5 as 100×α+100×Rs1×β+100×Rs1×Rs2×γ (seconds). In this way, it is possible to make the predicted processing time for each order candidate displayed in the selection menu more accurate.

[0230] In the configurations of the first and second embodiments described above, for example, in the processes shown in Figures 10, 11, 22, 26, and 35, a judgment process using an inequality sign with an equal sign is performed. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and the judgment processes of "greater than or equal to" and "less than or equal to" are merely examples, and may be replaced with judgment processes of "exceeding or not" and "less than or equal to", respectively, depending on how the thresholds are defined. The thresholds used in the judgment processes are also merely examples, and different thresholds may be applied in each case.

[0231] The visibility determination order selection device 1, 1a and the area design support device 2, 2a in the above-mentioned embodiment may be realized by a computer. In that case, a program for realizing this function may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded in the recording medium may be read into a computer system and executed to realize the function. The term "computer system" as used herein includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. The term "computer-readable recording medium" refers to portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and CD-ROMs, and storage devices such as hard disks built into a computer system. The term "computer-readable recording medium" may also include a medium that dynamically holds a program for a short period of time, such as a communication line when a program is transmitted via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line, and a medium that holds a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system that is a server or client in that case. The above-mentioned program may be a program for realizing a part of the above-mentioned function, or may be a program that can realize the above-mentioned function in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system, or may be a program that is realized using a programmable logic device such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

[0232] Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and designs that do not deviate from the gist of the present invention are also included. [Industrial Applicability]

[0233] The present invention can be applied to a device that supports the construction of a wireless communication environment by taking into account the line of sight between a base station device and a mobile terminal device. [Explanation of symbols]

[0234] 1...visibility determination order selection device, 2...area design support device, 11...input processing unit, 12...visibility determination target list generation unit for index value, 13...index value calculation unit, 14...order constraint condition generation unit, 15...order constraint condition memory unit, 16...visibility determination order candidate list generation unit, 20...visibility determination processing unit, 21...map data memory unit, 22...point cloud data memory unit, 23...communication parameter memory unit, 25...map visibility determination unit, 26, 26a...point cloud visibility determination unit, 27...obstruction rate visibility determination unit, 31...visibility determination target list generation unit, 32...implementation-dependent data memory unit, 33...predicted processing time calculation unit, 34...selection menu generation unit, 35...order selection reception unit, 36...visibility determination execution unit, 37...determination result memory unit, 38...determination result processing unit

Claims

1. an index value calculation process for calculating an index value for each of a plurality of visibility determination methods for determining visibility between a base station candidate position, which is a candidate installation position of a base station device, and an evaluation position, which is a candidate installation position of a mobile terminal station device; a step of generating an order constraint condition based on the index value; a visibility determination order candidate list generation process for selecting an execution order that satisfies the order constraint condition as an order candidate from among an execution order that indicates an order of execution of a plurality of the visibility determination methods, the execution order including any one of the plurality of visibility determination methods, an execution order generated by combining a part of each of the plurality of visibility determination methods, and an execution order generated by combining all of each of the plurality of visibility determination methods, and generating a visibility determination order candidate list including the selected order candidate; A perspective judgment order selection method including:

2. The index value calculation process includes: A narrowing-down rate is calculated as the index value corresponding to each of the visibility assessment methods, the narrowing-down rate being the ratio of the number of combinations of the base station devices and the evaluation locations that are determined to have visibility by each of the visibility assessment methods to the number of combinations of all of the base station devices and the evaluation locations. The method for selecting a visibility determination order according to claim 1 .

3. The index value calculation process includes: Calculating a value indicating the magnitude of visibility assessment processing required when applying each of the visibility assessment methods to a combination of a plurality of the base station devices and the evaluation positions as the index value corresponding to each of the visibility assessment methods. The method for selecting an outlook determination order according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The order constraint condition generation process includes: generating an order constraint condition for the plurality of visibility determination methods arranged in ascending order of the index value; The method for selecting a visibility determination order according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. The order constraint condition generation process includes: Generate an order constraint condition that prevents the visibility determination method having the largest index value from being executed alone. The method for selecting a visibility determination order according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

6. The order constraint condition generation process includes: generating an order constraint condition that the visibility determination method having the smallest index value is not executed alone and is executed at the top of an execution order; The method for selecting a visibility determination order according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. The order constraint condition generation process includes: generating an order constraint indicating which of the visibility determination techniques are to be executed in succession; The method for selecting a visibility determination order according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

8. an index value calculation unit that calculates an index value for each of a plurality of visibility determination methods that determine visibility between a base station candidate position that is a candidate installation position of a base station device and an evaluation position that is a candidate installation position of a mobile terminal station device; an order constraint condition generating unit for generating an order constraint condition based on the index value; a visibility determination order candidate list generating unit that selects an execution order that satisfies the order constraint condition as an order candidate from among an execution order that includes any one of the visibility determination methods, an execution order that is generated by combining a part of the visibility determination methods, and an execution order that is generated by combining all of the visibility determination methods, and generates a visibility determination order candidate list that includes the selected order candidate; and A visibility determination order selection device comprising:

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