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Oracle R Enterprise Configuration on Oracle Linux

Before starting to deal with large volumes of data problems on Oracle R Enterprise (ORE) you need to perform a couple of configurations over your Oracle Linux and Oracle Database systems. Here is the recipe:

Ensure that you have the following lines in your oracle users .bash_profile file
```
export R_HOME=/usr/lib64/R
export PATH=/usr/bin:$PATH
```
Ensure that you have already installed libpng.x86_64 and libpng-devel.x86_64 packages on your Oracle Linux otherwise issue to install them.
```
yum install libpng.x86_64 libpng-devel.x86_64
```
Switch to root and issue R. Once you are in R session, install two prerequisites of ORE:
```
install.packages("DBI")
install.packages("png")
```
Ensure that your database is 11.2.0.3 otherwise refer you need to apply several database patches:
Go to Oracle R Enterprise Download Page and download Oracle R Enterprise Server Install for Oracle Database on Linux 64-bit (91M) and Oracle R Enterprise Client Supporting Packages for Linux 64-bit Platform (1M) (ore-server-linux-x86-64-1.1.zip and ore-supporting-linux-x86-64-1.1.zip) under Oracle R Enterprise Downloads (v1.1) section

Unzip the file by issuing

unzip ore-server-linux-x86-64-1.1.zip ore-supporting-linux-x86-64-1.1.zip

At this point ensure that your database to support Oracle R Enterprise is up and running
Execute install.sh in order to create ORE libraries and database objects into SYS and RQSYS schemas.
```
cd server
./install.sh
```
Oracle R Enterprise 1.1 Server Installation.
Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Do you wish to proceed? [yes] Checking R ................... Pass Checking R libraries ......... Pass Checking ORACLE_HOME ......... Pass Checking ORACLE_SID .......... Pass Checking sqlplus ............. Pass Checking ORE ................. Pass Choosing RQSYS tablespaces PERMANENT tablespace to use for RQSYS [SYSAUX]: TEMPORARY tablespace to use for RQSYS [TEMP]: Current configuration R_HOME = /usr/lib64/R R_LIBS_USER = /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/R/library ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1 ORACLE_SID = orcl PERMANENT tablespace = SYSAUX TEMPORARY tablespace = TEMP Installing libraries ......... Pass Installing RQSYS ............. Pass Installing ORE packages ...... Pass Creating ORE script .......... Pass NOTE: To use ORE functionality, a database user with RQROLE role, a few more grants and synonyms is required. A complete list of requirements is available in rquser.sql. There is also a demo script demo_user.sh creating a new user RQUSER. To use embedded R functionality, an RQADMIN role is required. Please, consult the documentation for more information on various roles.
Done

Finally install some required R libraries/packages by using install.packages command in R. Ensure that user (root will do that) you will start R has a write permission on /usr/lib64/R/library

install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/ORE_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/OREbase_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/OREeda_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/OREgraphics_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/OREstats_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/server/ORExml_1.1_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
install.packages("/home/oracle/Desktop/supporting/ROracle_1.1-2_R_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz", repos = NULL)

Finally start a R session (ensure that $ORACLE_HOME/lib is in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH before starting R session) and load ORE library

library(ORE)
Loading required package: OREbase
Loading required package: ROracle
Loading required package: DBI

Attaching package: 'OREbase'

The following object(s) are masked from 'package:base':

    cbind, data.frame, eval, interaction, order, paste, pmax, pmin,
    rbind, table

Loading required package: OREstats
Loading required package: MASS
Loading required package: OREgraphics
Loading required package: OREeda
Loading required package: ORExml

Posted in Data Science

Create your Own R Server on Oracle Linux

Oct 4

Posted by kocakahin

It is very common to have people running R on their individual PCs. One major problem is the hardware limitations of your PCs will inhibit you to deal with large volumes of data.

Moreover if you wish to use Oracle R Enterprise you need a database connectivity and for some platforms like Mac there is no client available yet. In this post you will find how you can install R in a centralised fashion so that any individual can access it via their favorite browser.

Preparing Oracle Enterprise Linux

Ensure that ol5_u6_base (or a further release) and el5_addons (ol5_addons is also ok) repos are enabled in /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-el5.repo file(by setting enabled flag to 1)
Issue yum install R.x86_64 (Notice that R package is in el5_addons and other dependendents from el5_addons and ol5_u6_base)
Download 64-bit RStudio-Server by issuing wget http://download2.rstudio.org/rstudio-server-0.96.331-x86_64.rpm
Install RStudio-Server by issuing sudo rpm -Uvh rstudio-server-0.96.331-x86_64.rpm
Start a browser and go to http://<rstudio-servername>:8787

Provide your linux authentication details
RStudio-Server is ready to use

For more details on R Studio Server configuration refer to Management and Configuration documentations

Posted in Data Science

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Optimizing the Observers for Best Coverage (Part 4)

Sep 24

Posted by kocakahin

After my last post on multiple observers, I will discuss another topic related to multiple observers. The question is “What should be the optimal choice of N observers on terrain such that visible region (as many green points as possible by our convention) is maximized ?”.

We first define a pseudo code in order to find the optimal (Not guaranteed. Keep in mind that optimization problems are usually NP-complete by their nature) layout of N observers. For simplicity we will assume that all observers have the same height (7 units) which can be relaxed later.

We will implement a constructive way of finding optimal layout for N observers. Here is the pseudo code:

Find the optimal layout for 1 observer and compute coverage ratio (best coverage for one observer)
Add another random observer ((uniform(-8,8),uniform(-8,8))) and compute the coverage for those two observers (random one and the best observer from Step 1).

If the new coverage is better than the coverage in Step 1, use this as the input of optimization solver
Otherwise repeat Step 2 to find a better coverage.

For number of observers greater than 2 apply the idea in Step 2 recursively.

There are some blur points in this pseudo code. We will define those before moving further with the implementation.

Coverage

The very first thing to be defined is the coverage idea. As you will remember from second post, we have defined our 3D terrain by evaluating our height function over outer product of x & y values varying over [-8,8] with a step size of 0.1 units. We have 1681 different (x,y) tuples. Here is the definition of coverage based on our conventions:

Coverage Ratio is the ratio of points within LoS of a given observer/group of observers (at least one of the observers mark those set of points as green) to the total number of points (1681)

How to Find Optimal Coordinates of Observers ?

Optimality is a very common word used in place of many different concepts in real life or engineering. Let me define it once more for our purpose:

Optimization is the process of searching for an N-dimensional vector using a technique to maximize/minimize a function of that N-dimensional vector.

Now let’s substitute three italic words of definition for our problem:

N-dimensional vector in our problem is the vector of first to components of observer dimensions. Such as, (x1,y1,x2,y2,…,xn,yn).
Technique to be used is the Nelder and Mead Technique (A version of it implemented in R).
Function to be maximized is the coverage function which we have defined for a given set of observers.

Implementation

Let’s start by defining the function to be optimized that is coverage of terrain for a given set of observers.


targetfunc<-function(observer){
m <- matrix(data=observer,ncol=2,byrow=TRUE)

# Compute merged status of all observers
mergedstatus <- rep("red",length(terrain$height))
for(oidx in seq(1:dim(m)[1])){
terrain$dist2observer <- distance(terrain, c(m[oidx,],7))

status <- LoS(terrain,c(m[oidx,],7),maxVisibleDistance)

mergedstatus <- updatestatus(mergedstatus,status)
}

sum(mergedstatus=="green")/1681
}

matrix routine allows us to create a table of two columns(first two dimensions of observers) and length(observer)/2 rows. We have used the technique discussed in part 3 to compute merged status of observers. sum(mergedstatus==”green”) call is used to count number of green points on terrain with respect to observers.

Next is the computation of first input to be given to optimization solver. That’s because for any optimization technique starting point is critical. Without any formal definition we will use our pseudo code to choose a “good starting point/vector”.


n <- 2
baselineValue <- 0.541344
previousObserver <- c(1.15861411217711, 1.1499851362913)
observers <- c(previousObserver,runif(2,-8,8))
while(targetfunc(observers) <= baselineValue){
observers <- c(previousObserver,runif(2,-8,8))
}
print(observers)

Above code is an example to initialize observers vector for searching best 2 observer layout. It uses the best coverage ratio for 1 observer case (54.1344%) and adds a new random observer next to best observer found for single observer case.

Final point is the optimization solver which is very simple and totally handled by R


optim <- optim(observers, targetfunc,
control=list(fnscale=-1,trace=5,REPORT=1))

First parameter is the initial value for input vector (prepared by previous code piece). Second parameter is the name of the function to be maximized. optim function is implemented to solve minimization problems by default. Setting fnscale attribute of control parameter turns it to a maximization problem solver.

Now we can combine all to have our final script


library(rgl)
##################
# Functions
##################
# 3D Terrain Function
height <- function (point) {
sin(point$x)+0.125*point$y*sin(2*point$x)+sin(point$y)+0.125*point$x*sin(2*point$y)+3
}

# Linear Function
linear <- function (px, observer, target) {
v <- observer - target

y <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[2]+observer[2]
z <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[3]+observer[3]

data.frame(x=px,y=y, z=z)
}

# Linear Function
distance <- function (terrain, observer) {
sqrt((terrain$x-observer[1])^2+(terrain$y-observer[2])^2+(terrain$height-observer[3])^2)
}

LoS <- function(terrain, observer, maxVisibleDistance){
status = c()
for (i in seq(1:nrow(terrain))) {
if (observer[1] == terrain$x[i] && observer[2] == terrain$y[i]){
if(observer[3] >= terrain$height[i]){
if (terrain$dist2observer[i] > maxVisibleDistance){
status <- c(status,"yellow")
}else{
status <- c(status,"green")
}
}else{
status <- c(status,"red")
}
}else{
# All points on line
line <- linear(seq(from=min(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
to=max(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
by=0.1),
observer,
c(terrain$x[i],terrain$y[i],terrain$height[i]))
# Terrain Height
h <- height(line)

# LoS Analysis
aboveTerrain <- round((line$z-h),2) >= 0.00

visible <- !is.element(FALSE,aboveTerrain)
if (visible){
# Second Rule
if(terrain$dist2observer[i] <= maxVisibleDistance){
status <- c(status,"green")
}else{
status <- c(status,"yellow")
}
}else{
status <- c(status,"red")
}
}
}

status
}

updatestatus <- function(status1,status2){
mergedstatus<-c()

for(i in seq(length(status1))){
if (status1[i] == "green" || status2[i] == "green"){
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"green")
}else if (status1[i] == "yellow" || status2[i] == "yellow"){
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"yellow")
}
else{
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"red")
}
}

mergedstatus

}

##################
# Input
##################

# Max visible distance
maxVisibleDistance = 8

# Generate points with a step size of 0.1
x <- seq(from=-8,to=8,by=0.4)

xygrid <- expand.grid(x=x,
y=x)

terrain <- data.frame(xygrid,
height=height(xygrid)
)

targetfunc<-function(observer){
#print(observer)
m <- matrix(data=observer,ncol=2,byrow=TRUE)

# Compute merged status of all observers
mergedstatus <- rep("red",length(terrain$height))
for(oidx in seq(1:dim(m)[1])){
terrain$dist2observer <- distance(terrain, c(m[oidx,],7))

status <- LoS(terrain,c(m[oidx,],7),maxVisibleDistance)

mergedstatus <- updatestatus(mergedstatus,status)
}

sum(mergedstatus=="green")/1681
}

n <- 3
baselineValue <- 0.541344
previousObserver <- c(-1.32661956044593, 2.18870625357827)

# List of observers (x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2)
observers <- c(previousObserver,runif(2,-8,8))
while(targetfunc(observers) <= baselineValue){
observers <- c(previousObserver,runif(2,-8,8))
}
print(observers)

optim <- optim(observers, targetfunc,
control=list(fnscale=-1,trace=5,REPORT=1))

Results

Here is the coverage ratio for different number of observers after optimization

You can test covering more than 98% of whole terrain is not trivial by using only 6 random observers but requires “careful” choice of their layout.

Finally let’s check step by step improvement in coverage as we add more optimal observers.

Single Observer

Two Observers

Three Observers

Four Observers

Five Observers

Six Observers

Posted in Uncategorized

1 Comment

Tags: R, Spatial

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Multiple Observers (Part 3)

Sep 16

Posted by kocakahin

In this part of my LoS Analysis series, I will try to extend 3D LoS analysis for multiple observers. Assume that you drop multiple observers into a terrain with the aim of covering it perfectly (100% green).

We will reuse R codes used in Part 2. However we need to add a simple code piece to be used to merge Line of Sight results of multiple observers. If a point on terrain is visible by any of the observers that means point is visible, if the point is visible but far from all observers that means point is out of LoS due to distance (marked with yellow), for all other conditions point on terrain is red. updatestatus function is implemented for this purpose.

library(rgl)
##################
# Functions
##################
# 3D Terrain Function
height <- function (point) {
sin(point$x)+0.125*point$y*sin(2*point$x)+sin(point$y)+0.125*point$x*sin(2*point$y)+3
}

# Linear Function
linear <- function (px, observer, target) {
v <- observer - target

y <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[2]+observer[2]
z <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[3]+observer[3]

data.frame(x=px,y=y, z=z)
}

# Linear Function
distance <- function (terrain, observer) {
sqrt((terrain$x-observer[1])^2+(terrain$y-observer[2])^2+(terrain$height-observer[3])^2)
}

LoS <- function(terrain, observer, maxVisibleDistance){
status = c()
for (i in seq(1:nrow(terrain))) {
if (observer[1] == terrain$x[i] && observer[2] == terrain$y[i]){
if(observer[3] >= terrain$height[i]){
if (terrain$dist2observer[i] > maxVisibleDistance){
status <- c(status,"yellow")
}else{
status <- c(status,"green")
}
}else{
status <- c(status,"red")
}
}else{
# All points on line
line <- linear(seq(from=min(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
to=max(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
by=0.1),
observer,
c(terrain$x[i],terrain$y[i],terrain$height[i]))
# Terrain Height
h <- height(line)

# LoS Analysis
aboveTerrain <- round((line$z-h),2) >= 0.00

visible <- !is.element(FALSE,aboveTerrain)
if (visible){
# Second Rule
if(terrain$dist2observer[i] <= maxVisibleDistance){
status <- c(status,"green")
}else{
status <- c(status,"yellow")
}
}else{
status <- c(status,"red")
}
}
}

status
}

updatestatus <- function(status1,status2){
mergedstatus<-c()

for(i in seq(length(status1))){
if (status1[i] == "green" || status2[i] == "green"){
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"green")
}else if (status1[i] == "yellow" || status2[i] == "yellow"){
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"yellow")
}
else{
mergedstatus <- c(mergedstatus,"red")
}
}

mergedstatus

}

##################
# Input
##################
# Observer location
#observers<-c(0,0, 6,1,1,6)

# Max visible distance
maxVisibleDistance = 8

# Generate points with a step size of 0.1
x <- seq(from=-8,to=8,by=0.4)

xygrid <- expand.grid(x=x,
y=x)

terrain <- data.frame(xygrid,
height=height(xygrid)
)

# List of observers (x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2)
observers <- c(runif(2,-8,8),6,runif(2,-8,8),6,
runif(2,-8,8),6,runif(2,-8,8),6,
runif(2,-8,8),6,runif(2,-8,8),6,
runif(2,-8,8),6,runif(2,-8,8),6)
m <- matrix(data=observers,ncol=3,byrow=TRUE)

# Compute merged status of all observers
mergedstatus <- rep("red",length(terrain$height))
for(oidx in seq(1:dim(m)[1])){
terrain$dist2observer <- distance(terrain, m[oidx,])

status <- LoS(terrain,m[oidx,],maxVisibleDistance)

mergedstatus <- updatestatus(mergedstatus,status)
}

# Set merged status as the ultimate status
terrain <- data.frame(terrain,status = mergedstatus)

rgl.open()
rgl.surface(x, x,
matrix(data=terrain$height,nrow=length(x),ncol=length(x)),
col=matrix(data=mergedstatus,nrow=length(x),ncol=length(x))
)
bg3d("gray")

# Mark all observers
for(oidx in seq(1:dim(m)[1])){
spheres3d(c(m[oidx,1]),
c(m[oidx,3]),
c(m[oidx,2]),
radius=0.25,
color="white"
)
}

rgl.viewpoint(-60,30)

A Few Examples

Here are a few examples. All those observers are uniformly distributed over terrain using runif function

Trivial Case: Single Observer

Trivial Case with One Observer

Two Observers

Two Random Observers

Four Observers

Four Random Observers

Eight Observers

Eight Random Observers

Posted in Uncategorized

1 Comment

Tags: R, Spatial

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: 3D Terrain Analysis (Part 2)

Sep 8

Posted by kocakahin

In my previous post on LoS Analysis, I have tried to explain briefly the basics of LoS in two dimensional space. Obviously real life problems are based on three dimensional terrains although basic concepts are all the same. In this second part I will try to adapt the same techniques with a few modifications for three dimensional terrains.

3D Terrain Visualization with R

One of the first differences in 3D LoS analysis is the terrain visualization. We can not use plot function for proper visualization is 3D. Fortunately R has all packages you need for any type of problem. I will use rgl package which can be downloaded using install.packages("rgl") command.

Once you have the rgl package, generating pseudo 3D terrains as we did for 2D is a trivial thing.

3D Terrain with RGL

You can use the following R script to generate your 3D terrains like above.

library(rgl)

# 3D Terrain Function
height <- function (x,y) {
  sin(x)+0.125*y*sin(2*x)+sin(y)+0.125*x*sin(2*y)+0.25
}

# Terrain boundaries -8<=x<=8 and -8<=y<=8
boundary <- c(-8,8)

# Terrain grid with a step size of 0.1 units
xy<-seq(from=boundary[1],to=boundary[2],by=0.1)

# Evaluate all heights for all grid points
z<-outer(xy,xy,height)

# A few visualization staff
zlim <- range(z)
zlen <- zlim[2] - zlim[1] + 1
colorlut <- terrain.colors(zlen) # height color lookup table
col <- colorlut[ z-zlim[1]+1 ] # assign colors to heights for each point

# Draw the terrain
rgl.open()
bg3d("gray")
rgl.surface(xy, xy, z,
            color=col)

A new function in this script is outer function which generates the product of a vector and a row-vector to have a matrix (product of a row-vector with a vector/column-vector is obviously a scalar value and named to be dot/inner product). The third parameter of the function provides us the mechanism to apply a given function (height in our case) for each element of this matrix. Obviously you can play with height function to have fancier 3D terrains and to have best visualization you may need viewpoint routine in rgl package .

LoS in 3D Terrain

Line of Sight analysis on 3D terrain uses the same principles as it does in 2D. Use the following R script to decide on status of a point (invisible, visible, visible but far away)

library(rgl)
##################
# Functions
##################
# 3D Terrain Function
height <- function (x,y) {
  sin(x)+0.125*y*sin(2*x)+sin(y)+0.125*x*sin(2*y)+0.25
}

# Linear Function
linear <- function (x, observer, target) {
  v <- observer - target

  y <- ((x - observer[1])/v[1])*v[2]+observer[2]
  z <- ((x - observer[1])/v[1])*v[3]+observer[3]

  data.frame(x=x,y=y, z=z)
}

# Linear Function
distance <- function (p0,p1) {
  sqrt(sum((p0-p1)^2))
}

##################
# Input
##################
# Observer location
observer<-c(10,10,1)

# Target on terrain
target <- c(5, 5, height(5,5))

# Max visible distance
maxVisibleDistance = 4

# Generate points with a step size of 0.1
x <- seq(from=min(observer[1],target[1]),
         to=max(observer[1],target[1]),
         by=0.1)

# All points on line
line <- linear(x, observer, target)

# Terrain Height
h <- height(line$x,line$y)

# LoS Analysis
aboveTerrain <- round((line$z-h),2) >= 0.1

# First Rule
visible <- !is.element(FALSE,aboveTerrain)
if (visible){
  # Second Rule
  d <- distance(observer, target)
  if(d <= maxVisibleDistance){
    status <- "LoS"
  }else{
    status <- "non-LoS due to Distance"
  }
}else{
  status <- "non-LoS due to Blocking"
}

Obviously there are a few changes in the script with compared to 2D version. The first one is linear function(Code Lines 10-18). New version not only evaluates second (y) but also the third dimension (z). Notice that z is our height dimension by convention. We have also utilized data.frame function to concatenate all dimensions to form a table of point dimensions

The second difference is on height function (Code Lines 5-8). It is no longer a mapping from x to y but a mapping from x,y to z.

Rest of the 3D version of script is pretty much the same or trivial to discuss more.

Visualizing LoS on 3D Terrain

Until this point we have analyzed LoS of a single point on 2D-3D terrains. But usually network analists wish to know LoS map of the terrain with respect to a given observer. In other words we need to visually understand which regions on 3D terrain are visible by the observer, invisible by the observer due to blocking, or further than the limit from the observer.

Here the LoS map of our pseudo 3D terrain with respect to an observer with a given set of coordinates and maximum service range(green vs yellow regions).

3D LoS Analysis

You can obtain this visualization using following R script.

library(rgl)
##################
# Functions
##################
# 3D Terrain Function
height <- function (point) {
  sin(point$x)+0.125*point$y*sin(2*point$x)+sin(point$y)+0.125*point$x*sin(2*point$y)+3
}

# Linear Function
linear <- function (px, observer, target) {
  v <- observer - target

  y <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[2]+observer[2]
  z <- ((px - observer[1])/v[1])*v[3]+observer[3]

  data.frame(x=px,y=y, z=z)
}

# Linear Function
distance <- function (terrain, observer) {
  sqrt((terrain$x-observer[1])^2+(terrain$y-observer[2])^2+(terrain$height-observer[3])^2)
}

LoS <- function(terrain, observer, maxVisibleDistance){
  status = c()
  for (i in seq(1:nrow(terrain))) {
    if (observer[1] == terrain$x[i] && observer[2] == terrain$y[i]){
      if(observer[3] >= terrain$height[i]){
        if (terrain$dist2observer[i] > maxVisibleDistance){
          status <- c(status,"yellow")
        }else{
          status <- c(status,"green")
        }
      }else{
        status <- c(status,"red")
      }
    }else{
      # All points on line
      line <- linear(seq(from=min(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
                         to=max(observer[1],terrain$x[i]),
                         by=0.1),
                     observer,
                     c(terrain$x[i],terrain$y[i],terrain$height[i]))
      # Terrain Height
      h <- height(line)

      # LoS Analysis
      aboveTerrain <- round((line$z-h),2) >= 0.00

      visible <- !is.element(FALSE,aboveTerrain)
      if (visible){
        # Second Rule
        if(terrain$dist2observer[i] <= maxVisibleDistance){
          status <- c(status,"green")
        }else{
          status <- c(status,"yellow")
        }
      }else{
        status <- c(status,"red")
      }
    }
  }

  status
}

##################
# Input
##################
# Observer location
observer<-c(0.835597146302462, -1.71025141328573, 6)

# Max visible distance
maxVisibleDistance = 8

# Generate points with a step size of 0.1
x <- seq(from=-8,to=8,by=0.4)

xygrid <- expand.grid(x=x,
                      y=x)

terrain <- data.frame(xygrid,
                      height=height(xygrid)
                      )

terrain <- data.frame(terrain,
                      dist2observer=distance(terrain, observer)
                      )

terrain <- data.frame(terrain,
                      status = LoS(terrain, observer, maxVisibleDistance))

rgl.open()
rgl.surface(x, x,
            matrix(data=terrain$height,nrow=length(x),ncol=length(x)),
            col=matrix(data=terrain$status,nrow=length(x),ncol=length(x))
            )
bg3d("gray")
# Mark the observer
spheres3d(c(observer[1]),
          c(observer[3]),
          c(observer[2]),
          radius=0.5,
          color="white"
          )

rgl.viewpoint(-60,30)

For a better visualization R allows you to implement spinning 3D terrains using play3d function and record it in gif format using movie3d function as I did below.

3D LoS Analysis 360

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Tags: R, Spatial

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Basics (Part 1)

Sep 2

Posted by kocakahin

Introduction

Line of Sight analysis is a commonly used technique in telecommunication industry for A/I (Air Interface) equipment planning and allocation. With the simplest terms LoS is the question whether a point on N-dimensional space is visible by an other observer point. The question can be used to answer where to locate a transceiver on terrain so that it can serve customers on some region A.

Before relatively more complicated problems, let’s start with an easy example focusing on two dimensional terrains. Throughout the post, we will use R for coding which is my favorite option for any mathematical problem (statistics, plotting, linear algebra, optimization, etc.). But you can easily adapt coding material to Mathlab, Python,or your favorite language.

We will start by defining a mathematical function to be used to generate our pseudo terrains. For this purpose trigonometric functions (sin, cos) and polynomial functions are the best ones because of their wavy shapes. Here is an example of trigonometric terrain

Figure 1 Trigonometric Terrain

In order to generate this two dimensional one use the following code piece

x <- seq(from=4,to=10,by=0.01)
y <- sin(x)+cos(2*x)+sin(3*x)+cos(4*x)+3

windows()
plot(x,y,'l',
      main="y=sin(x)+cos(2x)+sin(3x)+cos(4x)+3",
      ylab="height",col="blue")

You may choose to use a polynomial terrain also

Figure 2 Polynomial Terrain

To obtain this terrain, use the following R script piece

x <- seq(from=0,to=6,by=0.01)
y <- x*(x-1)*(x-2)*(x-3)*(x-4)*(x-5)*(x-6)+100

windows()
plot(x,y,'l',
     main="y=x(x-1)(x-2)(x-3)(x-4)(x-5)(x-6)+100",
     ylab="height",col="blue")

Combining polynomial terrain functions with trigonometric ones will give you fancier ones.

What is LoS ?

You can think that we have already answered this question but this was an informal try which is not very useful for solving the problem. In order to solve this problem methodically we need to understand what makes a target visible (within LoS) by the observer.

As you see on Figure 3, green point is within line of sight of observer (blue point). However there is pseudo hill between red point and observer. The difference is that the line connecting observer and green point is always greater than the terrain function whereas this is not valid for the line connecting observer and red point (for x ε [~2.5, ~3.5] red line is under the terrain curve).

Figure 3 LoS vs non-LoS

This was the first point (blocking) we should define. The second one is an easier one related with maximum Euclidean distance between observer and target. The distance between observer and target may cause a phase shift in signal if the distance is sufficiently long or depending on weather conditions and terrain properties you may observer diffraction problems (actually there might be more than those). In return this will cause signal quality issues or call drops. On Figure 3, although blocking is not an issue between observer and yellow point, target is out of visible range (say 8 units) of observer.

You can generate Figure 3 using the following R script

# Terrain Function
height <- function (x) {
  x*x/3+sin(x)+cos(2*x)+sin(3*x)+cos(4*x)+sin(5*x)+cos(6*x)+3
}

# Observer location
observer<-c(1.5,8.9)

# Generate terrain points with a tolerance of 0.1
x<-seq(from=-0.1,to=6.1,by=0.1)
terrainHeight<-height(x)

windows()
# Draw terrain
plot(x,terrainHeight,type='b',
     xlim=range(x),ylim=range(terrainHeight),
     main="Line of Sight (LoS)",
     ylab="Height",xlab="")

# Not LoS
points(x=c(observer[1],x[41]),
       y=c(observer[2],terrainHeight[41]),
       col="red",type='b')

# LoS
points(x=c(observer[1],x[5]),
       y=c(observer[2],terrainHeight[5]),
       col="green",type='b')

# LoS but far
points(x=c(observer[1],x[length(x)]),
       y=c(observer[2],terrainHeight[length(x)]),
       col="yellow",type='b')

# Draw Observer
points(x=c(observer[1]),
       y=c(observer[2]),
       col="blue",pch=10)

Method to Decide LoS

Finally let’s define a method to find all visible, invisible, and “far” points on any terrain. Since it is not “easy” to decide analytically whether the line connecting observer and target “is above” the terrain for any terrain function, we will use a simple numeric method.

We will define a step size small enough (around Spatial Tolerance) to generate all x values between observer and target. seq function is a good choice for doing this (Code Lines 33-36). Evaluate these x values for line function connecting observer and target and terrain function. Evaluation is simple for terrain function using height function (Code Lines 4-7). Evaluation of line function is held by function linear using parametric definition of line function (Code Lines 9-14) . Next step is to search for any x value having a line evaluation less than terrain evaluation (Code Line 44-28). The rest is simple as to evaluate euclidean distance and assigning values to status variable.

##################
# Functions
##################
# Terrain Function
height <- function (x) {
  x*x/3+sin(x)+cos(2*x)+sin(3*x)+cos(4*x)+sin(5*x)+cos(6*x)+3
}

# Linear Function
linear <- function (x, observer, target) {
  v <- observer - target

  ((x - observer[1])/v[1])*v[2]+observer[2]
}

# Linear Function
distance <- function (p0,p1) {
  sqrt(sum((p0-p1)^2))
}

##################
# Input
##################
# Observer location
observer<-c(1.5,9)

# Target on terrain
target <- c(5, height(5))

# Max visible distance
maxVisibleDistance = 4

# Generate points with a step size of 0.1
x <- seq(from=min(observer[1],target[1]),
         to=max(observer[1],target[1]),
         by=0.1)

# Terrain Height
h <- height(x)

# y Values
y <- linear(x, observer, target)

# LoS Analysis
aboveTerrain <- round((y-h),2) >= 0.00

# First Rule
visible <- !is.element(FALSE,aboveTerrain)
if (visible){
  # Second Rule
  d <- distance(observer, target)
  if(d <= maxVisibleDistance){
    status <- "LoS"
  }else{
    status <- "non-LoS due to Distance"
  }
}else{
  status <- "non-LoS due to Blocking"
}

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1 Comment

Tags: R, Spatial

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Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Optimizing the Observers for Best Coverage (Part 4)

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Single Observer

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Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Multiple Observers (Part 3)

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Four Observers

Eight Observers

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: 3D Terrain Analysis (Part 2)

3D Terrain Visualization with R

LoS in 3D Terrain

Visualizing LoS on 3D Terrain

Line of Sight (LoS) Analysis: Basics (Part 1)

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What is LoS ?

Method to Decide LoS

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