Millimeter-wave propagation at street level in an urban environment

Measurements on point-to-point transmission at street level were performed in downtown Denver, CO, with RF probes that operated at 9.6, 28.8, and 57.6 GHz. All probes were mounted on self-contained vehicles, permitting a variety of path scenarios. Information on performance of these channels for propagation in an urban environment on both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight paths is presented. For non-line-of-sight (non-LOS) paths obstructed by buildings of several common materials, results that showed signal attenuations in excess of 100 dB. When the LOS followed a path directly through clear glass walls, the attenuation was small at all probe frequencies. However, when the glass wall had a metalized coating to reduce ultraviolet and infrared radiation, the attenuation increased by 25 to 50 dB for each metallized layer. In most cases no signals could be detected through steel reinforced concrete or brick buildings