A computationally efficient system to predict joint rain fade on arbitrary EHF networks

Abstract

This paper presents a computationally efficient method to predict joint rain fade on arbitrary networks of microwave links. Methods based on synthetic rain fields composed of a superposition of rain cells have been shown to produce useful predictions of joint fade, with low computational overhead. Other methods using rain fields derived from radar systems have much higher computational overhead but provide better predictions. The proposed method combines the best features of both methods by using a small number of measured rain fields to produce fade predictions. This greatly reduces the computation associated with measured rain fields yet produces predictions of similar quality.