FOliage Communications Simulation (FOCS) Framework

Reliable communications are essential for real-time situational awareness, sensor command, control planning and data access throughout the entire battle space for the warfighters. RF communications in forests, jungles and triple canopy environments (those with both an overstory and understory) are challenged by severe multipath and attenuation effects thereby limiting the warfighters"access to critical data. Wave propagation models that extend beyond free space and urban environments into foliage-rich environments are needed to provide better prediction of multipath interference, attenuation, and absorption in non-uniform dense forest and jungles. We propose to develop a foliage propagation framework, FOliage Communications Simulation (FOCS), to model the propagation of electromagnetic fields in a realistic forested environment and support the simulation and evaluation of new communication methods and deployment scenarios. The framework features realistic forest modeling taking into account environment factors and forest topography, the scattering characteristics of individually based forest components, and the effect of ground and multiple scattering interactions among trees. The framework will be general enough to allow for future incorporation of improved forest representation as better terrain data are collected. The results from Phase I will be used to define a comprehensive foliage propagation model in Phase II.