UTD analysis of foliage penetration for use in propagation modeling

One of the key challenges in propagation modeling for point-to-point links is including the effects of foliage. Foliage is a volume scatterer and much of the work that has been done on modeling foliage is statistical in manner. However, such statistical models often do not fit easily into existing propagation models. Our past propagation modeling work has used MOMI to solve the scattering from a perfectly conducting or dielectric ground, and volume scattering media do not fit well into the two dimensional integral equation method. Similarly, such volumetric statistical models would not be a good fit for diffraction based propagation models. Thus, we sought a simple continuous medium which might adequately, though not perfectly, match the foliage layer attenuation and reflection.