Angular spread of the radio wave propagation in foliage environment

In this paper, we have analyzed the effect of the foliage on the radio wave propagation using the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the directional characteristics of dispersion caused by trees in the radio channel. A wideband channel sounder was employed to perform measurements of polarimetric signals through dense foliage in the rural areas in Kanagawa. The analysis results show that the azimuth direction spread for horizontal (H) polarization is always more than that of vertical (V) polarization, and the opposite is true in the case of the co-elevation direction spread. The mean azimuth direction spread was found to be about 256° and the mean co-elevation direction spread was about 6°. © 2012 IEEE