Analysis of Bistatic Scattering Due to Hydrometeors on SHF and EHF Links in a Subtropical Location: A Comparative Study Based on the Rain Cell Models

The inevitable increase in radio interference within microwave systems continue to be of major concern as more of radio communication services compete with bandwidth assigned to the fixed service, fixed satellite service and broadcasting satellite service. Interference hampers coverage and capacity of these services often lead to the reduction in the signal to noise ratio at the receiving terminals. The existing global hydrometeor scatter model proposed by the International Telecommunication Union when applied to the tropical and subtropical location often leads to considerable inaccuracies due to the wide range of intense climatic and geographical nature of this region. In this study, the bistatic intersystem interference due to hydrometeors between satellite systems and terrestrial downlink receiver terminal systems in a subtropical station computation is based on the Awaka and Capsoni cell models. For the attenuation of both wanted and unwanted paths to the receiver, the existing model based on the specific attenuation has been modified to include the equivalent path length through rain in the estimation of the attenuation. Results obtained show that the Capsoni model exhibits the normal trend under a moist atmosphere with a gaseous attenuation more pronounced at frequencies greater than or equal to 30GHz. Also at high rain rates greater than 70mm/h and considering the rain with melting layer, up to about 70 dB difference was observed between transmission losses estimated using Awaka and Capsoni models at link probabilities ranging between 1–10−3% unavailability of the time.