RadioScience,Volume 17, Number 5, pages1051-1054,September-October1982

Effect of lateral profileon diffractionby natural obstacles

Maura S. Assis

Departamentode Treinamento,EmpresaBrasileirade Telecomunicafdes

20.080--Rio de Janeiro•RJ, Brazil

(ReceivedAugust27, 1981' revisedJanuary6, 1982' acceptedJanuary6, 1982.)

A simpleapproximatemathematicalmodel usingFresnel-Kirchhoffdiffractiontheoryis proposedto

investigatethe frequencydependenceof propagationattenuation by natural obstacleswith lateral
profileshavinggeneralshapes.Measurementscarried out in severallinks in the frequencyband from
270 to 330 MHz haveshownvariationsof _ 10 dB. Resultsobtainedfrom this modelagreereasonably
with experimentaldata. The designreliability of UHF communicationsystemsis thereforeimprovedby
its use.

INTRODUCTION the design reliability of UHF communicationsys-

This paper deals with the diffraction by natural
obstacleswith lateral profileshaving generalshapes.
Daugherty!-1969a,b, 1970a] provided the theoretical
basis for treating irregular profiles (both transverse
and on path) as multiple knife-edgediffracting obsta-
cles with simple geometrical shapes,whose contri-
butions to the receivedfield may be weighted and
combinedas vectorphasers.Bachynskiand Kingsmill
[1962] and Bachynski[1963] reported on the experi-
mental results of simple transverseprofiles. In this
paper the transversalprofile of a given obstacleis
approximatedby n isolated rectangularknife-edges,
each having sufficientlywide, but finite, lateral extent.
If the longitudinalcrestradiusof each of thesesimple
shapesis small enough,then the total field may be
approximatedas the vector sum of the phaser fields
due to these n isolated knife-edges [Daugherty,
1970b; Carlson,1973].
tems.
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Diffraction by a knife-edgeof arbitrary transversal
profile can be calculated by the general Fresnel-
Kirchhoff theory. The electric field intensity at an
observation point R, generated by a source T, is
given in the form of a simple surface integral in-
volving the electricfield intensityat the unobstructed
portion of the obstacle plane, and the free-space
Green'sfunction [Born and Wolf, 1970]. Application
of this theory to the finite isolatedrectangularknife-
edge shown in Figure 1, upon introduction of the
classical approximations for the Fresnel region,
yields,for the field at R,
E(R)/Eo(R
)= 1 -j e-•'m2+u2•/2
dt du (1)
A

The practicalproblem relatedto this study is the

investigationof the frequencydependenceof propa- where
gation attenuation with the transversalprofile. For
example,measurementsperformedin severallinks in Eo(R) free-spacefield at R;
the frequency band from 270 to 330 MHz have d=di +d2;
shown variations of _+10 dB with respect to the A = 2•/2 a/R;
median value. The model described in the next sec-
B = 21/2b/R;
tion enables an estimate of these variations with reas-
R first Fresnelzone radiusat apertureplane,equal to
onably good precisionand, consequently,increases (2did2/d)i/•;
k = 2rr/;t;
Copyright 1982 by the AmericanGeophysicalUnion. ;t wavelength.

Paper number 2S0043. An approximate expressionfor the field diffracted

0048-6604/82/0910-0043
$08.00 by an irregular obstaclewith a generalshapecan be

1051
1052 M. S. ASSIS

tanglesdependson the profile and the total extension

ß
P(x,z) considered (horizontal dimension (Xn+•--X•) in
Figure 2) shouldbe much larger than the largestver-
tical dimension(maximumheightYi in Figure 2). Ex-
pression(1) may now be applied to this geometryas
follows:

./////////////////•
///••/
/////
//////
///x-- E(R)/Eo(R) -
e -jkd
2
TRANSVERSAL PLANE

1-j • Xi , Yi i
e-j•'2/2dt e-•"•/2 du (2)

where

Xi = 2•/2xi/R Yi= 2•/2Yi/R

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Expression(2) was usedin the analysisof the fre-

quency dependenceof the propagation attenuation
with the transversalprofile. An application of this
TJ 0 result to the radio link shown in Figure 3 will be
described.In this case the transversal profile was
matched by 26 rectangles.The minimum horizontal
dimension was 50 m, and the total extension con-
LONGITUDINAL PLANE' sidered was 2 km.
An important problem arising at this point is to
Fig. 1. Singleirregularknife-edgeobstacle.
suit the knife-edgeresult obtained from (2) to the
diffraction by the real convex obstacle.To this aim,
obtainedfrom (1) as follows.The lateral profile of the the variations with frequencyestimated by (2) were
obstacle is approximately matched by a large referred to a straight line defined by linear inter-
number of rectanglesidenticalto the rectangleshown polation (least squares method); these variations
in Figure 1 (see Figure 2). The horizontal reference were then superimposedto the diffraction by the ob-
level was chosenat the point where the line of sight stacle considered uniform with a constant crest
crossesthe transversal plane. The number of rec- radius along the transversaldirectionequal to that in
the longitudinalplane containingthe transmitterand
receiver.Figure 4 showsa comparisonof the experi-
mental measurements with the theoretical evaluation
by the mathematical model discussedabove. As
noted previously,there is good agreementbetween
Xn-I-i-
Xl
:,,-
Yi • both results; the mean error was 1.8 dB with a stan-
dard deviation of 2.4 dB.

t2
CONCLUDING REMARKS
tl
//
// Besidesthe importance for link budget calculation,
the effect of the transversalprofile is also of interest
Xn Xn+ I for studyingthe intermodulationnoise.The existence
xI x2 xi / Line - of -sight
of two or more components of transmitted signal
with the same order of magnitude may cause inter-
Fig. 2. Rectangularfit to lateral profile. channel interference, degrading the system per-
 DIFFRACTION BY NATURAL OBSTACLES 1053

1150

I100

1050

I000

'" 950

;• 900

850

800

'750

700

15 I0 5 0 5 I0 15
i i • I i i t i i ! i i t I I I i i I i i i i i i i i i t i i

DISTANCE (Km)

LONGITUDINAL PROFILE

1160

1120

-• IO8O
• IO4O

:z: IOOO

960

920 LINE-OF-SIGHT
-/"/ I• •
880
o

DISTANCE (Kin)

TRANSVERSAL PROFILE

Fig. 3. Typical UHF link.

1054 M. S. ASSIS

150

Experimental

..... Theoretical

.... Smooth diffraction

145 /• / \/
!

" • i•-• I• • • !•,',.,,1 I_,.__ •....

I • /•• •'• • .__..
-.....
.
140

.-

155
270 280 290 $00 $10 $20 $$0

Frequency (MHz)

Fig. 4. Effectof lateral profile comparisonbetweentheoreticaland experimentalresults.

formance.The simplemathematicalmodel proposed profileon knife-edgediffraction,IEEE Trans.AntennasPropag.,

10(2), 201-205.
in this paper seemsto be useful for estimatingthe
Born, M., and E. Wolf (1970), Principlesof Optics,pp. 382-383,
level of lateral diffraction and, consequently,seemsto Pergamon,New York.
help preventthis kind of problem. Carlson, A. B. (1973), Shadow-zonediffraction patterns for tri-
angular obstacles,IEEE Trans. AntennasPropag.,21(1), 121-
124.
Acknowledgment.The author is gratefulto C. G. Migliora for
valuablediscussions
and readingof the manuscript. Dougherty,H. T. (1969a),An expansionof the Helmholtzintegral
and its evaluation,Radio $ci., 4(11),991-995.
Dougherty, H. T. (1969b),Radio wave propagationfor irregular
REFERENCES boundaries,Radio Sci.,4(11),997-1004.
Dougherty,H. T. (1970a),The applicationof stationaryphaseto
Bachynski,M.P. (1963), Scalemodel investigationsof electro- radio propagationfor finite limits of integration,RadioSci.,5(1),
magneticwave propagationover natural obstacles,RCA Rev., 1-6.
25(1), 105-144. Dougherty,H. T. (1970b),Diffractionby irregularapertures,Radio
Bachynski,M.P., and M. G. Kingsmill(1962),Effectof obstacle Sci., 5(1), 55-60.