Analysis of composite walls and their effects on short-path propagation modeling

For short-propagation paths, correctly representing reflections of electromagnetic energy from surfaces is critical for accurate signal-level predictions. In this paper, the method of homogenization is used to determine the effective material properties of composite materials commonly used in construction. The reflection coefficients for block walls and other types of materials calculated with these homogenized effective material properties are presented. The importance of accurately representing the reflections for signal-level prediction models is also investigated. It is shown that a 5-10-dB error in received signal strength (RSS) can occur if the composite walls are not handled appropriately. Such accurate predictions of signal propagation over a short distance is applicable to microcellular personal communications services deployments in urban canyons as well as indoor wireless private branch exchanges and local-area networks.