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Communications______________________________________________________________________
UHF and L Band Propagation Measurements to Obtain Log-Normal Shadowing Parameters for Mobile Satellite Link Design
I. Hakki Cavdar measured and the ratio between L band and UHF dB attenuation was determined. On the other hand, Goldhirsh and Vogel measured fade statistics for shadowing and multipath from roadside trees at UHF and L bands in 1985, 1986, and 1987 for mobile scenarios [8]. These tests were performed in Central Maryland and involved a helicopter and mobile van as the source and receiving platforms, respectively. Vogel and Goldhirsh performed mobile satellite propagation measurements at L band using MARECS-B2 in Central Maryland in 1987 [9]. The objectives of the MARECS-B2 mobile satellite system test were to establish cumulative fade distributions for the particular satellite geometry for driving along rural and suburban roads, to validate the consistency of previous roadside tree measurements which employed a helicopter as the transmitter platform for the same system of roads, to obtain additional set of fade levels at a lower angle hitherto not measured in Central Maryland, and to combine the satellite acquired data set with their previous helicopter results [8]. Vogel and Hong reported on L band fade statistics derived from measurements from a beacon located on a stratospheric balloon [10]. These experiments were performed in the region from New Mexico to Alabama in 1984 and 1986. Butterworth measured fade statistics in suburban and rural areas at approximately 800 and 1542 MHz [4], [5] in Ottawa, ON, Canada, using the MARECS-A geostationary satellite. He obtained the distributions corresponding to suburban, rural-forested, and rural-farmland data. Vogel et al. also measured cumulative fade distributions at L band in Australia employing the ETS-V and INMARSAT-Pacific geostationary satellites as transmitter platforms in 1988 [11]. Bundrock and Harvey reported on cumulative fade distributions obtained on typical double lane roads for both UHF and L band [12]. Jongejans et al. measured L band fading statistics using MARECS-B2 satellite in Europe in 1984 [13]. Cumulative distributions for eight roads in central MD at L band at several elevation angles were obtained from measurements by Goldhirsh and Vogel in 1995 [14]. All previous works, such as measurements, studies, and modeling in this area, were collected and published as a reference book by Goldhirsh and Vogel [15]. They reviewed and evaluated all these works and presented very useful suggestions and comments for land mobile satellite system designers in this book. Designers of planned land mobile satellite systems require information regarding signal degradation effects of trees at different frequencies and tree types for various geographic locations. An aim of mobile satellite systems is to ensure the possibility of service internationally. It is important to investigate new data belonging to other geographic locations for a true system design and tree attenuation analysis. For this purpose, tree attenuation measurements at L band were performed in Trabzon, Turkey, in 1993 [7] and repeated for the same trees at UHF band in 1996. The measurements were carried out from the beginning of April to the end of September to describe the effects of full blossom, with and without leaves and moisture in the trees at both the UHF and L bands. In May and in June, trees have full leaves and maximum moisture, in April, they just start growing leaves and are less dense and less moist, whereas in September, the leaves are relatively dry and ready to fall off. Results of these experiments were applied to the developed mobile satellite propagation model to predict the received signal level for various conditions of shadowing. II. METHOD OF MEASUREMENTS OF TREE ATTENUATION Measurements were conducted at the Karadeniz Technical University campus and in the villages nearby. First, the kinds of tree to be

AbstractTree shadowing is significant for mobile satellite radio propagation investigation and must be known for successful link design. Therefore, there are limited data on the relevant problem. For this purpose, propagation measurements at L and UHF band were performed in Trabzon, Turkey, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. These experiments were executed with a transmitter on the top of a high building, and the receiver system was located in a van outfitted with the antenna on its roof and receiver equipment in its interior. Measurements were carried out for 14 different tree types, and the results of both bands are presented in tabular and graphical forms. Experiments were repeated for the same trees during the months April to September. The variations of the tree attenuation were examined during these months with and without foliage. Average values of the tree attenuations were found to be 8.60 and 11.00 dB for UHF and L band, respectively. The scaling factor between L and UHF band attenuations in decibels was determined to be approximately 1.32. Using these measured parameters, fade depth statistics were calculated using a lognormal shadowing model. To establish validity of obtained results for the design of mobile satellite links, the results were compared with previous investigations. Index TermsFading, log-normal shadowing, mobile satellite link, propagation measurements, tree attenuation, tree shadowing.

I. INTRODUCTION

IN land mobile satellite communications for both L and UHF bands, and terrestrial mobile communication such as land mobile radio, cellular mobile radio, and GSM at UHF band, propagation may take place through groves of trees. The attenuation contribution for this configuration is due to combined absorption and multiple scattering from the conglomeration of tree canopies and trunks. These multipath effects cause signal fading and can be modeled as the shadowing propagation based on a lognormal distribution. In this system, designers need two parameters to calculate the received signal level: the average attenuation caused by trees and the standard deviation of the shadowing effect. To date, important experiments related propagation investigations for mobile satellite system design have been pursued at UHF, L, S, and K bands. These experiments can be classified into two groups: single tree measurements and fading statistics measurements. Although many propagation measurements have been conducted on the fading statistics in the different regions, only a few systematic single tree measurements have been conducted. There are limited data on the attenuation due to trees for land mobile system at both L and UHF bands. The previous works may be summarized for both single tree and the fading statistics measurements as follows. Static measurements of attenuation due to trees for land mobile satellite system were performed at UHF and L band by Vogel and Goldhirsh [1], Goldhirsh and Vogel [2], Vogel and Goldhirsh [3], Butterworth [4], [5], Ulaby et al. [6], and Cavdar et al. [7]. In these tests, the average attenuation of trees were
Manuscript received June 2, 2000; revised April 20, 2001. The author is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, 61080 Turkey (e-mail: cavdar@ktu.edu.tr). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2003.808545

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TABLE I SUMMARY OF EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS

Fig. 1.

Experimental hardware at UHF band.

measured was chosen, and then, information regarding their leaf types, sizes, and the periods they have their leaves were determined [16]. The physical characteristics of trees suggested that the most suitable period for the attenuation measurements was between April and September to be able observe such effects as with and without leaves, blossom, and moisture. The two frequencies 1600 MHz (L band) and 800 MHz (UHF band) were selected because these frequencies belong to the bands suitable for mobile satellite and terrestrial mobile communication systems. The transmitter and receiver used in these experiments for UHF band are described in Fig. 1. Table I is a summary of experimental aspects for UHF and L bands. Continuous-wave sinusoidal signal generators were used as the transmitter sources with powers of 0.5 and 0.25 W at the UHF and L bands, respectively. Dipole antennas with vertical polarizations were used at the transmitter sides for both bands. The L band receiver antenna was a drooping dipole, and the UHF receiver antenna was a quarterwave dipole antenna. The transmitter was located on top of a high building, whereas the receiver was in a van. The height of the building chosen as the transmitter platform was determined for every experiment to provide an elevation of 30 . These platforms were selected because of the unavailability of a geostationary satellite carrying L and UHF band beacons. This angle was selected in the experiments because it is a typical value in the northern parts of the world for real geostationary mobile satellite applications. A specific modulation technique was not used for these experiments because the aim of the measurements was to determine the degradations in the received signal level. Constant envelope signals were therefore transmitted from the sources. This is a suitable choice for FM and the other constant envelope digital modulation applications. At the receiver side, the received signal entered a low-noise amplifier and passed through a low-noise down converter to obtain the baseband signal. At the output of the low noise down converter, an envelope detector was used. The received signal at the output of the envelope detector was the faded signal that was recorded on tape in analog form. These records were applied to an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter, and the digital forms of the fading signals were obtained. Received signals in digital form were entered into a PC. Statistical calculations were performed using a developed software.

TABLE II SUMMARY OF SINGLE TREE ATTENUATIONS AT BOTH UHF AND L BANDS

In every measurement of single trees, the transmitters were first located in a position that provided an elevation of 30 . Thereafter, the van moved along the paths that were shadowed by the trees. At these times, while the van was moving, the received signals were recorded. On the other hand, a reference signal without the tree shadowing was also recorded for every measured tree. The measurements for a tree depend on the distance of the transmitter and the receiver and other physical conditions. To determine the average attenuation for a tree, the shadowed record of that tree was compared with its reference signal in the unshadowed position. The results of L and UHF band tree measurements, average attenuations (in decibels), average attenuation coefficients (in decibels per meter), and standard deviations (decibels) are given in Table II. The

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TABLE III FULL FOLIAGE ATTENUATIONS FOR DIFFERENT TREES FROM MAY TO AUGUST AT BOTH BANDS

TABLE IV LOW FOLIAGE ATTENUATIONS FOR DIFFERENT TREES SEPTEMBER AT BOTH BANDS

IN

APRIL

AND

results of these single tree tests for both L and UHF band can be summarized as follows: 1) For the L band, the average tree attenuations varied from 2.75 to 20.10 dB, whereas the attenuation coefficient was between 0.70 and 2.00 dB/m. 2) At the UHF band, the min and max values of average tree attenuation were measured to be 2.13 and 16.10 dB, respectively. Attenuation coefficients varied from 0.50 to 1.50 dB/m at the UHF band. 3) The scaling factors between the L and UHF band attenuations in decibels were calculated and added to the table for every tree. Scaling factors are between 1.20 and 1.80 with an average of 1.32. 4) The overall average tree attenuations were found to be 11.00 and 8.60 dB. 5) The overall average standard deviations of the individual standard deviations for different trees were calculated to be 3 dB and 2 for L and UHF bands, respectively. Table III shows full foliage attenuations for different trees at both bands in May, June, July, and August. Low foliage attenuations are given in Table IV at both bands in April and September. Fig. 2 shows the average tree attenuations and their seasonal effects for both bands from April through September. Clearly, the attenuation is maximum in May and June due to full blossom and moisture conditions. III. MOBILE-SATELLITE LINK DESIGN USING MEASURED PARAMETERS A successful model for mobile satellite propagation was developed by Loo [17] and is given by

Fig. 2. Seasonal variations in the average tree attenuations at both UHF and L bands.

the mean and standard deviation of ln(z ), and Io ( ) is the zeroth-order modified Bessel function. K is reciprocal of the average normalized mutipath power and is given by

K=

2 2

(2)

fv (v) =

11
z

2 Kv p s  exp

) 0 (ln(z2s0 m) 0 K (v2 + z2 ) 2
2

Io (2Kvz )dz
(1)

where fv (v ) is the probability density function of the random variable v , z is a random variable of the lognormal distribution, m and s are

where 2 2 is the average multipath power. This model assumes that the amplitude of the line-of-sight component under foliage attenuation (shadowing) is lognormally distributed and that the received multipath interference has a Rayleigh distribution. This statistical model can be used to determine the fading statistics on the received signal in a satellite mobile link. System designers would only need the mean value and standard deviation of the foliage attenuation to predict fading depth. Since the complicated integral given by (1) must be evaluated numerically, an algorithm was developed to solve it.

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Fig. 3. Fade distributions calculated using the lognormal model for 100% of 7 dB [5]. B: UHF band, optical shadowing. A: Butterworth, UHF, mean mean 9.2 dB [6]. 8.6 dB (this study). C: Ulaby et al., L band, mean D: VogelGoldhirsh, UHF band, mean 10.6 dB [1], [2]. E: Cavdar et al., L band, mean 11 dB [7]. F: GoldhirshVogel, L band, mean 11.6 dB [15].

= =

Fig. 4. UHF and L bands fade exceeded versus Rayleigh parameter family of indicated constant percentages.

K for

Fade depths (F ) were calculated using the measured parameters given in Section II for both bands using the Loos model and compared with the fade depths the under no shadowing effect case on the line-of-sight component. Fig. 3 shows the variations on fading depth for both bands using the measured parameters. In Fig. 3, the ordinate represents the percentage of the distance the fade depth is greater than the abscissa value. In these calculations, average tree attenuations are 11 and 8.60 dB, and standard deviations are 3 and 2 dB for L and UHF bands, respectively. The Rayleigh propagation parameter K is between 1020 dB; an average value of the K parameter is taken 15 dB. The obtained results of fading depths from these measurements are shown in Fig. 3 at both the L and UHF bands. In order to compare the obtained results with previous works, the existing data in literature are used to predict fading depths. The results of previous works on the single tree measurements are summarized as Vogel and Goldhirsh and Goldhirsh and Vogel performed single tree measurements at the UHF band over ten different trees in Virginia and in Central Maryland in 1985 and 1986. The average attenuation was 10.6 dB [1], [2]. Butterworth carried out single tree measurements at the UHF band in Ottawa, ON, Canada, in 1981, and he reported that the median attenuation was 7 dB [5]. Ulaby et al. measured the attenuations properties of a canopy at the L band in Michigan in 1990 [6]. Their measurements gave rise to an average attenuation of 9.2 dB. Goldhirsh and Vogel conducted the propagation tests for single trees at the L band in Austin, TX, in 1991, and they determined a 11.6dB average attenuation [15]. Unfortunately, the standard deviations were not reported in the previous works described above. The values of standard deviations for previous works in Fig. 3 were taken to be 3 and 2 dB at the L and UHF bands, respectively. Therefore, the comparisons were only done by using the standard deviations measured in this study. Although the standard deviations were not reported by authors, they are expected to be close to the values obtained here. Loo reported standard deviations between 0.5 and 3.5 dB for infrequent light and frequent heavy shadowing, respectively [17]. On the other hand, Barts and Stutzman solved Loos model and developed a mathematical approach [18]. The simplified lognormal shadowing model developed by Barts and Stutzman has tree input parameters such as K , mean value, and standard deviation of tree attenuation. It is clearly shown using this model that standard deviation has a small effect on the fading distribution.

Fig. 5.

Fade distributions for the minimum and maximum attenuation months.

Fading statistics for the shadowing parameters given above were also calculated and added in Fig. 3. The calculated results are quite similar to each other. In Fig. 3, the line-of-sight signal is fully shadowed by trees. Therefore, these results can be used as the worst-case values for fading depths on the mobile satellite link design. For example, the worst-case fade values are 2126 dB at the UHF band and 25.528.8 dB at the L band for P , where P is the percentage of the distance traveled over which the fade is exceeded. 0 The variations in K parameters do not play an important role in

= 1%

the fading depth. Fig. 4 shows the effect of variations of K in the the

UHF and L bands. While K parameter varies from 10 to 20 dB, the fading depths decrease from 30 to 25 dB for the L band and from 26 to 20 dB for the UHF band at P . The lognormal shadowing parameters, m and  used in Fig. 4 were the same values as in Fig. 3. Monthly effects on the fading statistics were carried out at both bands. In these calculations, the minimum and the maximum attenuations for both bands are plotted in Fig. 5. Minimum attenuation occured in September, whereas the maximum attenuation was observed in May

= 1%

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for both bands. It is clearly shown that seasonal effects cause approximately 6 dB difference for the L band and 7 dB difference for the UHF and 100% optical obstruction. band in the fading depths for P

[15]

=1

IV. CONCLUSION In this study, the average and the standard deviation for tree attenuations are determined experimentally. These findings are very important in solving the lognormal shadowing model given by (1) for mobile satellite communication links at the UHF and L bands. The measured parameters were applied to the link model, and the fading depths were calculated under various situations. The results of this study are as follows: 1) Mean values of tree attenuations are 11 and 8.60 dB at the L and UHF bands, respectively. 2) Averages of the individual standard deviations were 3 dB for the L band and 2 dB for the UHF band. 3) A scaling factor was found to be 1.32 between the L and UHF band tree attenuations. 4) The minimum attenuations occurred in September, whereas the maximum attenuation was observed in May for both bands. 5) The seasonal effects cause approximately 6dB difference for the L band and 7dB difference for the UHF band in the fading depths for P and 100% optical obstruction. 6) Fading depths were determined to be 27 dB for the L band and 23.5 dB for the UHF band using . Loos propagation model with measured parameters for P

, Handbook of Propagation Effects for Vehicular and Personal Mobile Satellite Systems Overview Experimental and Modeling Results, 2nd ed. Houston, TX: NASA, 1999. [16] G. Rabinette, The Design Characteristics of Plant Materials From Studies, 1st ed. Madison, WI: College Print, 1967. [17] C. Loo, A statistical model for a land mobile satellite link, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. VT-34, pp. 122127, Aug. 1985. [18] R. M. Barts and W. L. Stutzman, Modeling and simulation of mobile satellite propagation, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 40, pp. 375382, Apr. 1991.

Finite Element Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering From a Cavity

Tri Van and Aihua W. Wood

=1

= 1%

REFERENCES
[1] W. J. Vogel and J. Goldhirsh, Tree attenuations at 869 MHz derived from remotely piloted aircraft measurements, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-34, pp. 14601464, Dec. 1986. [2] J. Goldhirsh and W. J. Vogel, Roadside tree attenuation measurements at UHF for land-mobile satellite systems, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-35, pp. 589596, May 1987. [3] W. J. Vogel and J. Goldhirsh, Earth-satellite tree attenuation at 20 GHz foliage effects, Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp. 16401641, Sept. 1993. [4] J. S. Butterworth, Propagation measurements for land-mobile satellite services at 1542 MHz, Commun. Res. Center, Ottawa, ON, Canada, Tech. Note 723, 1984. , Propagation measurements for land-mobile satellite services in [5] the 800 MHz, Commun. Res. Center, Ottawa, ON, Canada, Tech. Note 724, 1984. [6] F. T. Ulaby, M. W. Whitt, and M. C. Dobson, Measuring the propagation properties of a forest canopy using a polarimetric scatterometer, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 38, pp. 251258, Feb. 1990. [7] I. H. Cavdar, H. Dincer, and K. Erdogdu, Propagation measurements at L-band for land mobile satellite link design, in Proc. 7th Mediterranean Electrotechn. Conf., Antalya, Turkey, Apr. 1994, pp. 11621165. [8] J. Goldhirsh and W. J. Vogel, Mobile satellite system fade statistics for shadowing and multipath from roadside trees at UHF and L-band, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 37, pp. 489498, Apr. 1989. [9] W. J. Vogel and J. Goldhirsh, Mobile satellite system propagation measurements at L-band using MARECS-B2, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 38, pp. 259264, Feb. 1990. [10] W. J. Vogel and U. S. Hong, Measurements and modeling of land mobile satellite propagation at UHF and L-band, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 36, pp. 707719, May 1988. [11] W. J. Vogel, J. Goldhirsh, and Y. Hase, Land-mobile satellite fade measurements in Australia, AIAA J. Spacecraft Rockets, vol. 29, pp. 123128, Jan.-Feb. 1992. [12] A. Bundrock and R. Harvey, Propagation measurements for an Australian land-mobile satellite system, Austral. Telecommun. Res., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1925, 1989. [13] A. Jongejans, A. Dissanayake, N. Hart, H. Haugli, C. Loisy, and R. Rogard, PROSAT-Phase 1 Report, Eur. Space Agency, Paris, France, ESA-STR 216, 1986. [14] J. Goldhirsh and W. J. Vogel, An extended empirical roadside shadowing model for estimating fade distributions from UHF to K-band for mobile satellite communications, Space Commun., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 225237, 1995.

AbstractIn this paper, a finite element method (FEM) is implemented to compute the radar cross section of a two-dimensional (2-D) cavity embedded in an infinite ground plane. The method is based on the variational formulation which uses the Fourier transform to couple the fields outside the cavity and those inside the cavity; hence, the scattering problem can be reduced to a bounded domain. The convergence of the discrete finite element problem is analyzed. Numerical results are presented and compared with those obtained by the standard finite element-Green function method and by the 2-D integral equation method. Index TermsDirichlet-Neumann map, finite element method, 2-D cavity.

I. INTRODUCTION The study of the scattering of electromagnetic plane waves by a two-dimensional (2-D) cavity-backed aperture in the infinite ground plane has been of great importance in aircraft industries. Accurate computational methods in predicting the radar cross section (RCS) of cavities are very much desired. Integral equation methods have been widely used by many authors (see, for example, [1] and references therein). However, they have the disadvantage of being difficult to implement for complex bodies. A hybrid method, known as the finite element-boundary integral method, is also often applied in scattering problems (see, for example, [2] and references therein). Using the field continuity conditions at the cavity aperture, this hybrid method combines the analytical solution above the ground plane in terms of Hankel functions and the approximate solution inside the cavity. However, little is known about the well-posedness and convergence of this method. In this paper, a variational approach that couples the finite-element method (FEM) and Fourier transforms is considered. This approach reduces the computational efforts to a bounded domain by introducing a DirichletNeumann map. We also analyze the existence, uniqueness, and convergence properties of the finite element-Fourier transform method. Some numerical results

Manuscript received November 30, 1999; revised January 29, 2001. The work of A. W. Wood was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant AFOSR-PO-990025. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. The authors are with the Air Force Institute of Technology, AFIT/ENC, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH 45433 USA (e-mail: Tri.Van@afit.af.mil; Aihua.Wood@afit.af.mil). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2003.808517

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