Radio Propagation for Modern Wireless Systems

Chapter 5Diffraction by Edges and Corners

In Chapters 3 and 4 we discussed, among other topics, the reflection and transmission of waves at material surfaces that were of large lateral extent. In this chapter we begin to examine the interaction of waves with material surfaces that are of finite lateral extent, to uncover the role that diffraction plays in directing signals to regions that would otherwise receive little or no signal. To describe the diffraction effects caused by the edges of surfaces using relatively simple mathematics, we employ the Kirchhoff–Huygens approximation [1]. Huygens recognized that the fields reaching any mathematical surface between a source and receiver can be thought of as producing secondary point sources on the ...