Analysis of Rain Fade Durations on Communication Links at Ka Band in Nigeria
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Date
2020
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
Abstract
Duration of rain fade events is a major parameter to be considered when designing a communication link. Fading is a phenomenon responsible for intermittent fluctuations of radio signals observed in the tropical region. The prevalence of rain in the tropics accounts for the frequency of fading observed in this region. This study investigates the number of fade events per fade duration interval exceeding attenuation thresholds ranging from 1 dB to 18 dB at 40 GHz. The range of fade durations is from 10 s to 5000 s. The International
Telecommunication Union (ITU-RP) propagation model and data from the Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN)
were used for the analysis. The eight TRODAN stations, under the
Centre for Atmospheric research (CAR), an activity Centre of the
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)
in Nigeria, cover the major climatic regions in the sub-Saharan
region, namely equatorial, humid tropical and tropical zones
(Geo. 4:82 N to 9:58 N). The results show that fade duration
decreases as attenuation increases across all the locations. The
implication is that heavy rains, causing higher attenuation, occur
for shorter time duration. Similarly, higher attenuation depends
on raindrops size and rain intensity. Consequently, the frequency
of fade events exceeding 1 dB threshold is higher than other
thresholds with respect to the fade duration.
Description
Keywords
Fade durations, Rain fade, Radio propagation, Rain attenuation, Tropical regions, Satellite communications, Communication links, Sub-Saharan Climate