In communications planning traditional rule-of-thumb techniques are not without deployment risks, whilst modelling systems used to predict pathloss and the effects of interference are time consuming. CRUMPET is a radio planning tool that provides a rapid calculation facility to allow the planning of area coverage, instant point- to-point pathloss prediction and interference/reinforcement calculation.

CRUMPET provides a platform for the planning of point-to-point links or area coverage using the UK Army EMC Agency RP03 model. Provision is made for the use of directional antennas with user specified radiation patterns. Multiple transmitter modelling is based on either reinforcements or interference between stations. The reinforcement mode predicts the composite field strength, whereas interference mode calculations predict the best server for each point in an area. A carrier to interference ratio can be set and areas where coverage is lost can be seen.

Applications of CRUMPET include:

• point-to-point modelling for microwave or line of sight links
• area coverage prediction
• predicting the effects of antenna height and polar patterns, frequency and ground permittivity
• dead ground prediction
• interference tracing
• analogue/digital quasi-sync communication modelling

CRUMPET was developed by QinetiQ, in collaboration with the University of York, UK.