Modeling tree effects on path loss in a residential environment

A theoretical model is proposed to compute the path loss in a vegetated residential environment, with particular application to mobile radio systems. As in the past, rows of houses or blocks of buildings are viewed as diffracting cylinders lying on the Earth and the canopy of the trees is located adjacent to and above the houses/buildings. In this approach, a row of houses or buildings is represented by an absorbing screen and the adjacent canopy of trees by a partially absorbing phase screen. The phase-screen properties are found by finding the mean field in the canopy of the tree. Physical optics (PO) is then used to evaluate the diffracting field at the receiver level by using a multiple Kirchhoff-Huygens integration for each absorbing/phase half-screen combination.