Description of a Generic Vegetation Attenuation Model for 1-60GHz

Network planning and systems design tools are used for predicting and controlling mutual co-channel interference, signal coverage, quality of service and link budgets etc. A propagation aspect that must be included in these tools is the excess attenuation from vegetation. This may arise from both signal absorption and scatter and will also depend season, vegetation species, frequency etc. To improve the algorithms used in these tools, a consortium of UK institutions have developed a generic vegetation attenuation model that takes into account link geometry, and vegetation type (species and if in or out of leaf). The model is based on extensive measurements and radiative energy transfer algorithms to account for the scattering effects of vegetation. This paper describes the narrow band, 1-60GHz generic attenuation model developed and summarises the database of measurements collated during the development of the model.