Effect of sand and dust storms on GSM coverage signal in southern Libya

Abstract

The propagation of Electromagnetic waves in millimeter band is severely affected by rain and dust particles in terms of attenuation and de-polarization. There is a growing interest in the effect of dust particles on the propagation of microwaves. This is brought by the increasing number of terrestrial and satellite links in those regions that encounter dust and/or sand storms. Computations of these effects require knowledge of electrical properties of the scattering particles and climate conditions of the studied region. Libya has a large area and it is counted as a country having desertification climatic. Wireless communication networks and GSM coverage stations has been installed in the southern part of Libya, where there are dust and sand storms that may affect the microwave signal propagation. When microwaves and millimetre waves pass through a medium containing precipitations like sand and dust particles, the signals get attenuated through absorption and scattering of energy out of beam by the sand and dust particles. The main object of this paper is to study the effect of sand and dust storms on wireless communication, such as microwave links and GSM signal coverage, in the southern region of Libya (Sebha, Ashati, Obari, Morzok, Ghat) by determining the attenuation. The result should that there are some consideration that has to be taken into account in the communication power budget.