Prediction and Estimation of Rain attenuation of Ka-Band signals

Ka Band is being used for advanced communication satellite systems to provide data with high throughput to smaller terminals, thus catering to the needs of the time. However, as these high frequency Ka band signals are strongly impaired by various impediment, especially the attenuation due to rain is the most severe degradation. Rain attenuation leads to degradation in the received strength (C/No) of a signal and in turn deteriorates the performance of the system. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the expected rain attenuations accurately to design a satellite link in this band. To study the impairment in rain attenuation, six different ground stations all over India have been set up across India which measures the rain rate and drop size distribution (DSD) along with the received signal level transmitted from a 20.2 and 30.5 GHz beacon, currently on board GSAT-14 satellite.