Measurements of Atmospheric Attenuation in an Outdoor Wireless E/W-Band Communication Link

This paper is giving a summary about the atmospheric effects affecting millimeter wave communication systems for a point-to-point E-band link. The focus is on attenuation caused by water droplets. Experimental results obtained in Stuttgart, Germany, are presented to confirm the theoretical aspects discussed through this paper. Wideband complex modulated signals with up to 3.3 GBd symbol rate are used to model the atmospheric behavior of electromagnetic radio frequency signals on an E-band link (71–76 GHz), operated over 1.6 km distance. This paper reviews also the availability and fade margin targets of the new radio links by showing the correlation with the ITU models and recommendations.