A Review on Rainfall Measurement Based on Commercial Microwave Links in Wireless Cellular Networks

As one of the most critical elements in the hydrological cycle, real-time and accurate rainfall measurement is of great significance to flood and drought disaster risk assessment and early warning. Using commercial microwave links (CMLs) to conduct rainfall measure is a promising solution due to the advantages of high spatial resolution, low implementation cost, near-surface measurement, and so on. However, because of the temporal and spatial dynamics of rainfall and the atmospheric influence, it is necessary to go through complicated signal processing steps from signal attenuation analysis of a CML to rainfall map. This article first introduces the basic principle and the revolution of CML-based rainfall measurement. Then, the article illustrates different steps of signal process in CML-based rainfall measurement, reviewing the state of the art solutions in each step. In addition, uncertainties and errors involved in each step of signal process as well as their impacts on the accuracy of rainfall measurement are analyzed. Moreover, the article also discusses how machine learning technologies facilitate CML-based rainfall measurement. Additionally, the applications of CML in monitoring phenomena other than rain and the hydrological simulation are summarized. Finally, the challenges and future directions are discussed.