Understanding and predicting urban propagation losses

Abstract

Modern day warfare has presented the United States with a more technically savvy opponent in conflicts that have moved away from the traditional battlefield to the populated environment of the big city. Battle space dominance no longer refers simply to the physical nature of war, but now also encompasses a digital environment with a greater influence on Information Warfare. One of the keys to successfully maintaining open wireless lines of communication and extracting data,or denying the adversary the ability to communicate, is a complete understanding of radio wave propagation and the positive and negative effects of spreading and propagation losses. In a communication link, or radio wave transmission, several sources of degradation are mathematically accounted for, to include losses due to materials used, equipment setup, environmental factors, and interference associated with the actual frequencies. Up until recently, there were no studies evaluating the potential multipath losses that exist between a transmitter and receiver in an urban environment. This thesis will examine existing urban propagation models and evaluate their effectiveness in a variety of urban environments through a range of frequencies.