Rain Fade Analysis at C, Ka and Ku Bands in Nigeria

Abstract

Rain fade has continued to be a major concern to communication systems designers. The effect of these dynamic fluctuations of the received signal due to rain is very pronounced in the tropical region. This paper pertains to the analysis of rain fades at C, Ku and Ka bands at some selected stations covering the main geographical zones of Nigeria. The ITU-RP propagation model was used to calculate the fade depth at 6 GHz, 8 GHz, 12 GHz, 16 GHz, 20 GHz, 30 GHz and 40 GHz. The rain fade correlates with signal attenuation. Attenuation distributions for percentages of time for signal unavailability were also estimated. The results show that values of attenuation for vertically and circularly polarized signals are less than those of the horizontal polarization at all the frequencies. It is found that rain fade is less severe in the Northern part of the country and is most severe in the southern part of Nigeria, with Port Harcourt, Lagos and Nsukka experiencing the highest rain impairment.