Both DEM and ground terrain affect signal coverage and, therefore, affect the design and the positioning of cell sites or towers. Due to the cost of such an exercise, this process was limited to urban areas. These vectors were then interpolated to create a raster product. One of the benefits to this method is that raw-data capture is not dependent upon weather, thus allowing greater flexibility. So far this method has not been tried.
Clutter is a type of land-use classification.
These three criteria affect both the strength of the signal and the distance it can travel. The clutter was generated from the same aerial photography that was utilized for the DEM generation in the urban areas. Vector polygons were captured via heads-up digitizing, with a class identifier assigned to each object. Then the vector layer was cleaned and checked for overshoot errors, slivers, and so forth. No re-projecting was required as the vector layer was referenced to aerial photography, and then rastorized.