  In this paper we analyze new observations from ALMA and VLA, at a high
angular resolution corresponding to 5 - 8 au, of the protoplanetary disk around
HD 163296 to determine the dust spatial distribution and grain properties. We
fit the spectral energy distribution as a function of the radius at five
wavelengths from 0.9 to 9\,mm, using a simple power law and a physical model
based on an analytic description of radiative transfer that includes isothermal
scattering. We considered eight dust populations and compared the models'
performance using Bayesian evidence. Our analysis shows that the moderately
high optical depth ($\tau$>1) at $\lambda \leq$ 1.3 mm in the dust rings
artificially lower the millimeter spectral index, which should therefore not be
considered as a reliable direct proxy of the dust properties and especially the
grain size. We find that the outer disk is composed of small grains on the
order of 200 $\mu$m with no significant difference between rings at 66 and 100
au and the adjacent gaps, while in the innermost 30 au, larger grains
($\geq$mm) could be present. We show that the assumptions on the dust
composition have a strong impact on the derived surface densities and grain
size. In particular, increasing the porosity of the grains to 80\% results in a
total dust mass about five times higher with respect to grains with 25\%
porosity. Finally, we find that the derived opacities as a function of
frequency deviate from a simple power law and that grains with a lower porosity
seem to better reproduce the observations of HD163296. While we do not find
evidence of differential trapping in the rings of HD163296, our overall results
are consistent with the postulated presence of giant planets affecting the dust
temperature structure and surface density, and possibly originating a
second-generation dust population of small grains.
