Evaluation of rainfall rates and rain-induced signal attenuation for satellite communication in the South-South Region of Nigeria

Abstract

Rain fade causes signal attenuation which can relatively results in signal quality performance degradation, increased pathloss and  coverage area reduction in satellite communication networks, most especially in the tropics and at higher operational frequencies above  10GHz. Analysis of rain attenuation provides useful insight for satellite communication engineers for efficient network planning and  design within the region of study. Hence this paper presents threeyear analysis of signal-induced attenuation in the South-South States  of Nigeria for the cities of Port-Harcourt, Uyo, Calabar and Eket, whose terrain characteristics could be generalized to represent urban,  sub-urban and rural terrains in Nigeria. The International Telecommunications Union Radio-wave propagation (ITU-R P618-13) model was  used to estimate the long-term rain attenuation at 10GHz, 20GHz and 30GHz for satellite communication applications. Results  obtained at 10GHz, 20GHz and 30GHz operational frequencies show that at high frequency, rain fade can cause signal attenuation levels  in the south-south region of Nigeria. In all, Calabar recorded the highest rain rate and corresponding highest attenuation level of 96.13dB  at 30GHz compared to 50.29dB at 20GHz for the period under review.