GPRT: A Gaussian Process Regression-Based Radio Map Construction Method for Rugged Terrain

Accurate radio environment maps (REMs) can enhance the performance of wireless networks and optimize spectrum utilization efficiency. However, in rugged terrain environments, radio propagation is significantly affected by terrain variations, resulting in spatial heterogeneity in received signal strength (RSS) and impairing the accuracy of REM construction. To address these challenges, a Gaussian Process Regression method incorporating terrain (GPRT) is proposed to exploit both spatial and terrain correlation properties. In GPRT, a specialized kernel function is designed to integrate digital elevation data into the Gaussian process framework, capturing anisotropic spatial correlation and terrain effects. In addition, an Adaptive Moment Estimation (Adam) optimization algorithm is utilized for efficient hyperparameter tuning, enhancing convergence speed and parameter accuracy. Simulations with varying numbers of emitters and field experiments in real-world terrain demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed GPRT over competing methods in terms of robustness and accuracy. Specifically, GPRT outperformed the best comparative approaches by 20% to 33% in simulations and by up to 20% in the field experiment.