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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/37905
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Record Id 37905
Title A generic model of 1-62 GHz radio attenuation in vegetation
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Abstract Wireless network planning and systems design tools are used for predicting and controlling mutual co-channel interference, signal coverage, quality of service and link budgets etc. A propagation aspect that must be included in these tools is the excess attenuation from vegetation. Previous studies have shown that up to 25% of customers in a given area may have the path to / from a radio hub obscured by trees. For some cases, a vegetation screen may be introduced in the location of a radio transmitter / receiver to reduced interference with neighbouring services. In both of these situations the optimum usage of the radio spectrum can be improved by accurate prediction of the extent of attenuation in the "through-vegetation" path. Attenuation may arise from both signal absorption and scatter and will also depend season, vegetation species, frequency etc. To improve the algorithms used in prediction tools, a consortium of UK institutions have developed a generic vegetation attenuation model that takes into account link geometry, and vegetation type (species and if in or out of leaf). The model is based on a year-long campaign of measurements made at over ten locations in the UK, on ten tree species (both in-leaf and out-of-leaf) at frequencies ranging between 1 and 62 GHz. The measurements were designed to identify and separate individual mechanisms of propagation through (or even around) the vegetation, in order to determine how these components should be combined in a generic model. To account for the scattering effects of vegetation, the radiative energy transfer theory was developed and applied using measurements of the phase (or scatter) function of the vegetation and attenuation versus depth.
Organisation CCLRC , RCRU
Keywords Physics , Engineering , Vegetation , Raiowave propagation
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Language English (EN)
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Paper In Conference Proceedings In IEE Getting the Most out of the Radio Spectrum Conference, London, UK, 24-25 Oct 2002, (2002). 2002