Millimeter Wave Pulse Propagation through Distorted Raindrops for LOs Fixed Wireless Access Channels

Abstract

Millimeter waves propagating through the atmosphere experience absorption and dispersion due to various physical mechanisms. Gaseous oxygen, water vapor and suspended water droplets represent the principal absorbers in moist air, while in the presence of rain additional phenomena of absorption and scattering further degrade the transmitted signal. The scope of this paper is the incorporation of rainfall rate effects on pulse propagation along Line-Of-Sight (LOS) Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) paths. A regression fitting analysis in combination with the Method of Auxiliary Sources (MAS) is implemented for the calculation of the scattering amplitude of a plane electromagnetic wave by a Pruppacher-Pitter raindrop. As a result, analytical expressions of rain-influenced propagation factors are derived. Numerical results for horizontally and vertically polarized channels are presented and some important conclusions are derived.