Internet-based sensor system for environmental monitoring

Wireless access networks based on millimetre wavelength technologies are mainly impaired by rain. To evaluate the rain effects over a communication system, it is essential to know the temporal and spatial evolution of rainfall rate. For this reason, it is necessary to develop an experimental network which provides the adequate data to study, prevent and compensate the rain fade. In this paper an experimental rain gauge network is presented. This network comprises weather stations capable of measuring rainfall rate, temperature and humidity. The paper first describes the experimental network for automatic data acquisition as a distributed process system. The design of the experimental network is explained in detail and finally the interest in millimetre wavelength for broadband applications is outlined.