Radio Wave Propagation Through Foliage

Wireless technology continues to experience rapid growth and development. With the ever increasing demand for wireless services and applications, more advanced tools are necessary to ensure the performance of these wireless systems. One of the most important tools for system development and radio planning are the radio propagation channel models. These models allow system designers and radio planners to better understand the mechanisms of the propagation of radio waves, which aids in ensuring the quality of service of present wireless systems, as well as in predicting the performance of future wireless systems. The propagation of radio waves is largely dependent on the obstacles that are present in the propagation environment. These obstacles introduce absorption, scattering and diffraction to the propagating radio waves, which may degrade the performance of the wireless system. In general, the propagation environment can be categorized into two types: the urban environment, in which the most significant type of obstacles are man made structures such as buildings, and the rural environment, in which vegetation structures such as trees are the dominant form of obstacles. Much work has been done in studying the urban propagation environment, with a large number of different models available in literature. The rural environment on the other hand somewhat falls behind in the number of models available. It is in this type of propagation environment that this paper focuses on.