Propagation characteristics in open-groove waveguides surrounded by rough sidewalls

The radio propagation characteristics in groove-shaped roads surrounded by rough surface sidewalls are presented. Typical sidewalls are snowpack in heavy snow regions or buildings in urban areas. In this analysis, such roads are modeled by a straight groove waveguide with statistically rough sidewalls. A simple geometrical optical approach is applied to calculate the field strength along the longitudinal direction of the road as well as transversely across the road. The theoretical results are compared with previously presented experimental results. The theoretical results show that the surface roughness causes an additional propagation loss in regions far from the transmitting point and that the field strength in the cross section exhibits a cosine distribution with a slightly changing magnitude. These theoretical characteristics agree with the experimental results.