Modeling of rain attenuation and site diversity predictions for tropical regions

Presented in this paper is an empirical model for long-term rain attenuation prediction and statistical prediction of site diversity gain on a slant path. Rain attenuation prediction on a slant path is derived using data collected from tropical regions, and the formula proposed is based on Gaussian distribution. The proposed rain attenuation model shows a considerable reduction in prediction error in terms of standard deviation and root-mean-square (rms) error. The site diversity prediction model is derived as a function of site separation distance, frequency of operation, elevation angle and baseline orientation angle. The novelty of the model is the inclusion of low elevation angles and a high link frequency up to 70 GHz in the model derivation. The results of comparison with Hodge, Panagopoulos and Nagaraja empirical predictions show that the proposed model provides a better performance for site separation distance and elevation angle. The overall performance of the proposed site diversity model is good, and the percentage error is within the allowable error limit approved by International Telecommunication Union – Region (ITU-R).