Estimation of Rain Attenuation over 10 GHz to 80 GHz Radio Band

The major challenge faced by wireless signal propagation is the attenuation of radio signals due to atmospheric phenomenon like rain, snow, dust and clouds. Attenuation caused by rainfall is the main factor affecting the reliability of communication system beyond 10 GHz. This paper evaluates the performance of rain attenuation models, namely ITU-R model and Crane model using experimental formulations. The degradation in wireless signal propagation due to rain is determined using the above-mentioned models at different rain rates. Further, the impact of elevation angle and vertical and horizontal polarization on the signal attenuation with varying frequencies is observed. In the end, both the models are compared for better performance. It is observed that ITU-R model outperforms the Crane model with minimum rain attenuation of 5.0541dB at 10 GHz at rain rate of 20 mm/hr. With increase in rain rate, the attenuation increases with maximum attenuation observed for rain rate of 100 mm/hr at 80 GHz. Also, the effect of elevation angle and polarization on signal attenuation due to rain suggests that ITU-R model is a better choice while evaluating the wireless signal propagation in different rainfall conditions.