Diffraction modelling of mobile radio wave propagation in built-up areas

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis examines theoretical methods of modelling radio wave propagation in built-up areas, with particular application to mobile radio systems Theoretical approaches allow precise quantitative description of the environment in terms of parameters such as mean building heights and densities, in contrast to the ambiguous nature of more conventional empirical models. The models are constructed using both scalar and vector field analysis techniques. The vector analysis is accomplished using the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction to describe the detailed effects of building shape and positioning, particularly for short-range situations. Over longer ranges propagation can often be described in terms of multiple edge diffraction over building rooftops using a scalar field representation. This mechanism accounts well for measured field strength variations, but is time consuming to calculate accurately using standard methods. A rapid algorithm for calculating scalar diffraction over multiple building edges with arbitrary positioning is constructed. This model can be used for deterministic prediction of sector median field strengths including slow fading variations when appropriate building data exists. It is also applicable to terrain diffraction problems. For the case when only average building parameters are available a closed form solution to the problem of multiple diffraction over buildings of equal heights and spacings is derived. The solution is applicable to any antenna heights and so provides a rapid and efficient way to predict gross propagation characteristics. Both models are tested against measurements made in the UHF band and are found to yield good prediction accuracy.This work is funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council under award number 889088999 and by Philips Radio Communication Systems Ltd. of Cambridge under an industrial studentship

Wideband mobile propagation channels: Modelling measurements and characterisation for microcellular environments

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Analysis and measurement of electromagnetic scattering by pyramidal and wedge absorbers

By modifying the reflection coefficients in the Uniform Geometrical Theory of Diffraction a solution that approximates the scattering from a dielectric wedge is found. This solution agrees closely with the exact solution of Rawlins which is only valid for a few minor cases. This modification is then applied to the corner diffraction coefficient and combined with an equivalent current and geometrical optics solutions to model scattering from pyramid and wedge absorbers. Measured results from 12 inch pyramid absorbers from 2 to 18 GHz are compared to calculations assuming the returns add incoherently and assuming the returns add coherently. The measured results tend to be between the two curves. Measured results from the 8 inch wedge absorber are also compared to calculations with the return being dominated by the wedge diffraction. The procedures for measuring and specifying absorber performance are discussed and calibration equations are derived to calculate a reflection coefficient or a reflectivity using a reference sphere. Shaping changes to the present absorber designs are introduced to improve performance based on both high and low frequency analysis. Some prototypes were built and tested

Surface plasmon hurdles leading to a strongly localized giant field enhancement on two-dimensional (2D) metallic diffraction gratings

International audienceAn extensive numerical study of diffraction of a plane monochromatic wave by a single gold cone on a plane gold substrate and by a periodical array of such cones shows formation of curls in the map of the Poynting vector. They result from the interference between the incident wave, the wave reflected by the substrate, and the field scattered by the cone(s). In case of a single cone, when going away from its base along the surface, the main contribution in the scattered field is given by the plasmon surface wave (PSW) excited on the surface. As expected, it has a predominant direction of propagation, determined by the incident wave polarization. Two particular cones with height approximately 1/6 and 1/3 of the wavelength are studied in detail, as they present the strongest absorption and field enhancement when arranged in a periodic array. While the PSW excited by the smaller single cone shows an energy flux globally directed along the substrate surface, we show that curls of the Poynting vector generated with the larger cone touch the diopter surface. At this point, their direction is opposite to the energy flow of the PSW, which is then forced to jump over the vortex regions. Arranging the cones in a two-dimensional subwavelength periodic array (diffraction grating), supporting a specular reflected order only, resonantly strengthens the field intensity at the tip of cones and leads to a field intensity enhancement of the order of 10 000 with respect to the incident wave intensity. The enhanced field is strongly localized on the rounded top of the cones. It is accompanied by a total absorption of the incident light exhibiting large angular tolerances. This strongly localized giant field enhancement can be of much interest in many applications, including fluorescence spectroscopy, label-free biosensing, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), nonlinear optical effects and photovoltaic

New approach of diffraction of electromagnetic waves by a rough surface

We consider the diffraction of a plane wave by a rough surface. In the sake of simplicity the study is restricted to the case of perfectly conducting surfaces. Solving this problem is only possible by limiting the infinite rough surface to a window of width D. We show that we can obtain the diffraction pattern at infinity in the Fraunhofer zone from the modeling of diffraction by a grating with period D whose elementary pattern coincides with the rough surface in the window D. We give some numerical results for triangular profiles or rectified cosine. We show that for small heights we find that the most widely Kirchhoff approximation is very well checked. This modeling can be applied to Fraunhofer diffraction problem by a non-planar metal strip and the complementary problem of diffraction by a perfectly conducting screen, infinitely thin and with a slit of one or more periods

Atomic diffraction from nanostructured optical potentials

We develop a versatile theoretical approach to the study of cold-atom diffractive scattering from light-field gratings by combining calculations of the optical near-field, generated by evanescent waves close to the surface of periodic nanostructured arrays, together with advanced atom wavepacket propagation on this optical potential.Comment: 8 figures, 10 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A high frequency analysis of electromagnetic plane wave scattering by perfectly-conducting semi-infinite parallel plate and rectangular waveguides with absorber coated inner walls

An approximate but sufficiently accurate high frequency solution which combines the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) and the aperture integration (AI) method is developed for analyzing the problem of electromagnetic (EM) plane wave scattering by an open-ended, perfectly-conducting, semi-infinite hollow rectangular waveguide (or duct) with a thin, uniform layer of lossy or absorbing material on its inner wall, and with a planar termination inside. In addition, a high frequency solution for the EM scattering by a two dimensional (2-D), semi-infinite parallel plate waveguide with a absorber coating on the inner walls is also developed as a first step before analyzing the open-ended semi-infinite three dimensional (3-D) rectangular waveguide geometry. The total field scattered by the semi-infinite waveguide consists firstly of the fields scattered from the edges of the aperture at the open-end, and secondly of the fields which are coupled into the waveguide from the open-end and then reflected back from the interior termination to radiate out of the open-end. The first contribution to the scattered field can be found directly via the UTD ray method. The second contribution is found via the AI method which employs rays to describe the fields in the aperture that arrive there after reflecting from the interior termination. It is assumed that the direction of the incident plane wave and the direction of observation lie well inside the forward half space tht exists outside the half space containing the semi-infinite waveguide geometry. Also, the medium exterior to the waveguide is assumed to be free space

Modeling EMI Resulting from a Signal Via Transition Through Power/Ground Layers

Signal transitioning through layers on vias are very common in multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) design. For a signal via transitioning through the internal power and ground planes, the return current must switch from one reference plane to another reference plane. The discontinuity of the return current at the via excites the power and ground planes, and results in noise on the power bus that can lead to signal integrity, as well as EMI problems. Numerical methods, such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), Moment of Methods (MoM), and partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method, were employed herein to study this problem. The modeled results are supported by measurements. In addition, a common EMI mitigation approach of adding a decoupling capacitor was investigated with the FDTD method