Prediction of Rain-Induced Attenuation along Earth-Space Links at Millimeter Wave Bands over West African Region
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Date
2021
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Publisher
Begell Journal
Abstract
The present work characterizes the degree of rain-induced attenuation on 15-80 GHz earth-space communication links. Eutelsats 36B and 36C, and NigComSat-1R satellite links over five West African countries were considered through the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) [International Telecommunications Union (ITU)], Bryant, and Syjatogor rain attenuation models. Three locations were selected in each country for the analysis using 2013-2017 rain data obtained from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) missions. ITU-R predicted higher attenuation values than the other two models; while Svjatogor values were close to ITU-R, and the Bryant model predicted the lowest. At 99.99% signal availability, rain attenuation along the earth-space link over the five countries ranged between 22.1 and 34.2 dB for Ku-band (15 GHz) but exceeded the satellites' link margins at Ka-band (30 GHz). At 0.1% unavailability, the range is 6-21 dB across all the locations for V-band (60 GHz), which implies that the satellites can sustain 99.9% of signal availability across the countries. However, for 99.99% and 99.9% signal availability at W-band, earth-space links can experience a total outage across the selected stations. Some locations in the northern parts can have 99% availability, which is an ~ 87 h/yr outage. Hence, the result could be a benchmark for planning trans-horizon radio communication links across West Africa.
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Keywords
millimeter wave frequencies, radio propagation, rain attenuation, West Africa
Citation
Sanyaolu, M.E., Dairo, O.F., Soge, A.O. and Willoughby, A.A. (2021). Prediction of Rain-Induced Attenuation along Earth-Space Links at Millimeter Wave Bands over West African Region. Telecommunications and Radio Engineering 80(11), 35–62, https://doi.org/10.1615/TelecomRadEng.2022041459.