The interaction of RF energy with wall materials

The sense through the wall research community has depended upon a number of studies and a few key sets of measured data on large wall test samples for analysis, development, and design of critical hardware, software, and systems. New and improved testing technology has now been used to acquire, post process, and analyze measured data sets. The Intelligence & Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) has made it a priority to realize the benefits of new technology to improve upon and add detail to existing data, while exploring completely new test methodologies. These factors have provided the basis for a new comprehensive test plan for the RF characterization of wall samples used in the past at the I2WD wall testing facility located at CACI Technologies in Eatontown, NJ. In addition, there will be future testing of new material composition samples will be characterized. Our first phase of testing investigates the permittivity of large scale wall samples. The wall samples used for our testing were constructed using "real world" type conventional construction techniques (see 1.1.1). This paper will cover the RF characterization of these wall materials (basic frequency response, permittivity). The initial round of testing has seen the benefits of highly advanced RF test equipment and calibration techniques. Following these baseline tests, a future publication will cover advanced testing, which will explore near field vs. far field effects, moisture variations, angles of incidence, and polarization effects. Lastly, waveform testing will be performed to determine the best waveform techniques and their effectiveness in through wall applications.