Plane-wave UTD-PO formulation for multiple-plateau diffraction analysis assuming negative incidence angles

Abstract

We present a detailed methodology for investigating radiowave multiple diffraction events over rectangular barriers (here termed plateaus) when exposed to a plane wave originating from a low-lying source. Based on Babinet’s principle, our approach uses the combined uniform theory of diffraction-physical optics (UTD-PO), and is validated via 60 GHz measurements performed on a scaled replica of the setting under investigation. As an additional validation, theoretical results at 2 GHz of the corresponding spherical-wave solution converge with those of the presented plane-wave formulation with expanding distance between the source and the first obstacle. The proposed method has a crucial advantage in that it solely considers single diffractions via recursion, thus precluding the need for the diffraction coefficients to include higher order diffraction terms. The work’s findings and insights are salient for mobile communication system design in settings where the adjacent rectangular structures are higher than the transmitting antenna.