Analysis of correlation between Ricean K-factor and vegetation density surrounding a CDMA mobile terminal

In this paper, the propagation measurements obtained by utilising the IS-95 pilot signal of a commercial CDMA mobile network in rural Australia are analysed regarding the small-scale fading characteristics. It is shown that for this environment the characteristics can be described by the Ricean distribution, where the K-factor correlates with the clutter density in the vicinity of the mobile receiving antenna. The Ricean K-factor indicates the small-scale fading margin required in a link budget calculation scenario, where pessimistic modelling, assuming Rayleigh fading, would lead to unnecessary high base station transmitter power and possible interference problems. This analysis correlates the vegetation density variations near the mobile receiving antenna to the Ricean K-factor enabling for prediction of the small-scale fading characteristics.