ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫЕ КАНАЛЫ И СРЕДЫ UDC 654.165 doi:10.15217/issn1684-8853.2015.1.68 DEPOLARIZATION EFFECTS OF RADIO WAVE PROPAGATION IN VARIOUS LAND BUILT–UP ENVIRONMENTS Y. Ben-Shimola, PhD, Electrical Engineering, Senior Lecturer, benshimo@bgu.ac.il N. Blaunsteina, Dr. Sc., Phys.-Math., Professor, nathan.blaunstein@hotmail.com M. B. Sergeevb, Dr. Sc., Tech., Professor, mbse@mail.ru aBen-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 1, Ben Gurion St., Beer Sheva, 74105, Israel bSaint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, 67, B. Morskaia St., 190000, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation Purpose: A detailed analysis of the spatial-temporal variations of the polarized characteristics of an elliptically polarized radio wave propagating in various built-up environments. <...> Methods: Analysis of the classical methods used for defining the polarized parameters of homogeneous monochromatic plane waves, arriving at the receiver antenna from various directions in free space, is briefly presented. <...> These methods are adapted for the propagation scenarios occurring in four land builtup environments, where the complicated stochastic variations of wave polarization parameters have been observed experimentally and when the canonical methods are ineffective. <...> The 3D classical presentation of the geometrical parameters of the polarized ellipse and Stocks parameters are used to analyze the co-polarized and cross-polarized components of the wave intensity in the vertical and horizontal plane of the polarization ellipse and their relations with the main parameters and characteristics of the built-up terrain are explored. <...> Practical Relevance: The presented analysis allows to estimate theoretically the angle of wave depolarization and the polarization loss effects in rural, mixed residential, sub-urban, and urban areas. <...> Such estimation allows designers of cellular networks to predict reception problems due to de-polarization in the presence of stochastic disturbances. <...> Measurements that are taken prior to the deployment of cellular networks can now be limited to “problematic antenna positions” that are predicted by the presented model. <...> Introduction During propagation in the space domain, all radio waves can be decomposed into two wave components mutually orthogonal in the plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation. <...> One of the main problems (among other complicated problems), observed in the recent 4–5 decades, was the effect of the polarization discrimination or mismatch (called the depolarization) occurring in the land communication channels <...>