Yee Hui Lee

Empirical Near Ground Path Loss Modeling in a Forest at VHF and UHF Bands

Near ground radio wave propagation is examined in a tropical plantation experimentally at VHF and UHF bands. The propagation loss with forest depth is empirically analyzed using an integrated model combining both the foliage induced effect and the ground effect. Several well-known empirical foliage models are compared and analyzed. It is observed that the fitted ITU-R model taking into account the ground reflection, can provide a close approximation to the path loss in a tropical palm plantation. However, the accuracy of this model becomes poor when lateral wave dominates in the VHF band. A modification to the ITU-R model is then proposed taking into consideration the lateral wave effect. The modified model is verified using measured and published data, and found to have higher accuracy for large foliage depth in the VHF band as compared to the existing empirical foliage models.

Tapered dual-plane compact electromagnetic bandgap microstrip filter structures

In this paper, the designs of two novel tapered dual-plane compact electromagnetic bandgap (C-EBG) microstrip filter structures are presented. With the dual-plane configuration, the proposed structure displays an ultrawide stopband with high attenuation within a small circuit area. Chebyshev distribution is adopted to eliminate ripples in the passband caused by the periodicity of the EBG structure. This gives rise to a compact EBG structure that exhibits excellent transmission and rejection characteristics in the passband and the stopband, respectively. The proposed structures are implemented and the measurement results are found to be in good agreement with the simulation results, verifying the excellent stopband and passband performance obtained using the proposed configuration. These novel structures are easy to fabricate and are promising structures that have wide applications for compact and high performance circuit component designs in microwave circuits.

INVESTIGATIONS OF FOLIAGE EFFECT ON MODERN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: A REVIEW

In this paper, a large number of studies of the efiect of the foliage on single or lines of trees on modern wireless communication systems are reviewed. The paper is focused on the experimental works mainly done for commercial applications such as cellular communication and high speed point-to-point flxed link at the microwave and millimeter wave frequencies. For this review study, the development of the foliage loss prediction methods and the factors in∞uencing the tree-induced shadowing efiect are highlighted. In view of current research work in this area, some possible future works are proposed to improve the performance of modern wireless communication systems with the efiect of foliage.

STUDY OF PROPAGATION LOSS PREDICTION IN FOREST ENVIRONMENT

A comprehensive review of radio wave attenuation in forest environments is presented in this paper. The classic analytical methods of propagation loss modeling and prediction are described flrst. This provides information on the physical processes that the radio waves undergo while propagating through a forest. The focus of this paper is on the review and summary of the experimental work done in this area and the development of empirical propagation loss prediction models. The propagation loss variation due to external factors such as antenna height-gain, depolarization, humidity efiect etc. are examined and discussed individually. In view of current research work done in this area, some possible future work is proposed to improve the performance of radio links in forest environment.

A Compact E-Shaped Patterned Ground Structure and Its Applications to Tunable Bandstop Resonator

In this paper, an E-shaped patterned ground microstrip bandstop resonant cell is proposed. In comparison to other bandstop resonators, it provides the advantages of a high-Q factor, and a sharp transition knee within a small circuit area. This resonant cell is applied to the design of a tunable bandstop resonator. Due to the unique E-shaped pattern etched in the ground plane, the proposed resonant cell is able to provide tuning function within a small circuit area.

Measurements and Characterizations of Air-to-Ground Channel Over Sea Surface at C-Band With Low Airborne Altitudes

This paper presents an experimental study of air-to-ground channels over sea surface at the C-band (5.7 GHz) with low airborne altitudes (0.37-1.83 km) through wideband channel measurements. In this paper, the multipath statistics and the propagation loss at different airborne altitudes are estimated and analyzed. It is observed that about 95% (86%) of the measured channel responses can be represented by the 3-ray (2-ray) multipath model. As the airborne altitude decreases, there is a higher probability for the appearance of multipath components. Moreover, it is found that the evaporation duct and elevated duct over the sea surface are the two important factors that can significantly affect the over-water air-to-ground communication link. These ducts can also decrease the rate of radio-wave attenuation, i.e., a decrease in path-loss exponent n in the log-distance path-loss models.

Performance of Site Diversity Investigated Through RADAR Derived Results

Site diversity is an effective rain attenuation mitigation technique, especially in the tropical region with high rainfall rate. The impact of different factors such as site separation distance, frequency, elevation angle, polarization angle, baseline orientation and wind direction is assessed. Results are compared to those reported in existing literature and also compared to the commonly used ITU-R site diversity prediction models. The effect of the wind direction on site diversity is also presented. It can be observed that diversity gain is highly dependent on the site separation distance, elevation angle and wind direction but independent of the frequency, baseline angle and polarization angle of the signal. This study is useful for the implementation of site diversity as a rain attenuation mitigation technique.

Truncated Gamma Drop Size Distribution Models for Rain Attenuation in Singapore

A model that is less sensitive to errors in the extreme small and large drop diameters, the gamma model with central moments (3, 4 and 6), is proposed to model the rain drop size distribution of Singapore. This is because, the rain rate estimated using measured drop size distribution shows that the contributions of lower drop diameters are small as compared to the central drop diameters. This is expected since the sensitivity of the Joss distrometer degrades for small drop diameters. The lower drop diameters are therefore removed from the drop size data and the gamma model is redesigned for its moments. The effects of the removal of a particular rain drop size diameter on the specific rain attenuation (in dB) and the slant-path rain attenuation calculations with forward scattering coefficients for vertical polarization are analyzed at Ku-band, Ka-band and Q-band frequencies. It is concluded that the sensitivity of the Joss distrometer although affects the rain rate estimation at low rain rates, does not affect the slant path rain attenuation on microwave links. Therefore, the small drop diameters can be ignored completely for slant path rain attenuation calculations in the tropical region of Singapore.

Compact U-shaped dual planar EBG microstrip low-pass filter

In this paper, a novel high-performance compact dual planar electromagnetic bandgap (DP-EBG) microstrip low-pass filter with a U-shaped geometry is proposed. By employing the unique DP-EBG configuration and the U-shaped geometry of the microstrip line (MLIN), the proposed structure achieves a wide stopband with high attenuation and a high selectivity within a small circuit area. Its passband ripple level is low due to the U-shaped geometry and the electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure with square patches inserted at the bends of the MLIN. The Chebyshev tapering technique is used to taper components of the proposed structure in order to eliminate ripples caused by the EBG periodicity. The structure was fabricated and the measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results. This novel design demonstrates superior low-pass filtering functionality and can easily be applied to monolithic circuits.

The Effects of Tropical Weather on Radio-Wave Propagation Over Foliage Channel

This paper investigates the dynamic property of a tropical forested channel due to the weather effect on very high frequency (VHF) and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) radio-wave propagation. In this paper, continuous-wave (CW) envelope fading waveforms are recorded over a period of 50 s with static antennas. This paper focuses on the analysis of the combined effect of wind and rain, which is often encountered in a tropical forest. The induced temporal effects are discussed and compared with theoretical models. It is found that the distribution of temporal fading components resembles a Rician distribution function. Its Rician K factor gradually decreases as the strength of either wind or rain increases due to the movement of the forest components.