Simple Transmission Line Model from RET Results for Propagation Through Vegetation

RET theory is widely used for modelling propagation through vegetation at microwave frequencies. The parameters of the model are determined from a limited amount of measured data via curve fitting. The propagation model is therefore essentially empirical and is characterized from a few types of trees at a few densities, using specific antennas at specific separations, and at a few frequencies. The resulting model is mathematically complex, has a large number of parameters, and is slow to compute. A simpler and faster-to-compute model is required, and given the empirical nature of the RET-based vegetation propagation model, it is a straightforward task to reduce the parameters and greatly simplify the model. This paper presents the simplest transmission line model that tightly fits established RET -based results.