Using space diversity against attenuation through vegetation: a field study for quasi-mm wave band fixed wireless access systems

This paper describes experiments conducted to examine the effect of space diversity (SD) in offsetting the attenuation through vegetation for quasi-millimetre wave band fixed wireless access (FWA) systems. The received signal level (RSL) through vegetation is measured while changing the arrangement of two receivers, and by changing the beam width of transmitter and receiver. Since the results indicate that the space correlation coefficient, ρ, lies mostly in the range -0.4 to 0.4, effective SD reception through vegetation is possible. The results also show that both sharp and broad beam antennas offer improvement of 8 dB or less in cumulative probability of 1%.