Tropospheric attenuation prediction for future millimeter wave terrestrial systems: Estimating statistics and...

Area of Science:

• Electromagnetics and Wave Propagation
• Atmospheric Physics
• Telecommunications Engineering

Background:

• Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems are susceptible to significant tropospheric attenuations.
• Existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) models for tropospheric attenuation have limited accuracy due to large-scale input parameters.
• Accurate prediction of tropospheric attenuation is crucial for the reliability of mmWave communication links.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze tropospheric attenuation statistics using local precipitation data.
• To compare attenuation predictions derived from local data versus ITU regional data.
• To assess the impact of local weather data on mmWave propagation modeling.

Main Methods:

• Simulated tropospheric attenuation at 30, 60, and 90 GHz using the ITU method.
• Employed local precipitation data from four distinct geographic locations with varying climates.
• Calculated statistics including annual average rain attenuation, worst-month rain attenuation, and decadal trends.

Main Results:

• Local rain data resulted in higher mean rain event attenuation (0.5 to 2 dB increase for 1 km links).
• Attenuation values at all probability levels were higher with local data; e.g., 0.1% probability at 30 GHz increased from 5 dB to 9 dB in Columbia, SC.
• Fog attenuation reached up to 8 dB at 90 GHz, and peak rain attenuations showed a decadal increase of approximately 2 dB over 50 years.

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrates that actual tropospheric attenuations can be substantially higher than predicted by ITU models using regional rain rate data.
• Local meteorological data significantly improves the accuracy of tropospheric attenuation predictions for mmWave communication.
• The findings underscore the necessity of incorporating localized weather information for robust mmWave system design and deployment.