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_
,
1
1
0
Atten a RR d r
b
0 01 . dB
Figure 2. Five-nines hop distance chart, 39 GHz, Crane rain model.
Figure 3. Four-nines hop distance chart, 39 GHz, Crane rain model.
62 www.rfdesign.com May 2002
Wi th :
(5)
Equati on 3 provi des an esti mate of
th e path atten u ati on th at i s on l y
exceeded 0.01% of the ti me. The I TU
model al so provi des an adjustment fac-
tor for avai l abi l i ty that i s appl i ed to the
path attenuati on i f avai l abi l i ti es other
than 0.9999 ar e desi r ed. The adjust-
ment factor i s appl i ed to the attenua-
ti on (expressed i n dB) that i s computed
by (3). The expr essi on for the adjust-
ment factor i s:
(6)
Where p i s the desi red outage proba-
bi l i ty expr essed as a per centage (p =
0.01 for 0.9999 av ai l abi l i ty ). Th e
adjustment factor i s val i dated for avai l -
abi l i ti es from 0.99 to 0.99999.
The a and b factor s ar e empi r i cal
val ues that have been tabul ated i n the
references and are the same val ues for
both Crane and I TU model s. The val -
ues are a functi on of the frequency and
pol ari zati on of i nterest. Parameter val -
ues for frequenci es that are not tabul at-
ed can be computed by i nter pol ati on,
usi ng a l ogari thmi c frequency scal e and
l ogar i thmi c scal e for a and a l i near
scal e for b.
The Cr ane model takes a di ffer ent
approach to model i ng rai n attenuati on.
Cr ane does not use an avai l abi l i ty
adjustment factor on the attenuati on,
but r ather uses the r ai n data for a
number of di ffer ent avai l abi l i ti es
some of whi ch ar e shown i n Tabl e 2
al ong wi th the rai n rates. The rai n rate
data for the desi r ed avai l abi l i ty ar e
then used i n Cranes empi ri cal model to
deter mi ne the path attenuati on as a
functi on of range. The Crane model i s
di vi ded i nto two segments, dependi ng
on the actual r ai n r ate i nvol ved. The
fi rst segment i s for di stances between 0
and (d) where:
(7)
I n thi s regi on, the rai n attenuati on i s:
(8)
Where:
(9)
For the other case, (RR)<d<22.5 km,
the attenuati on i s gi ven by:
(10)
Where:
z = b(0.026 0.03l nRR)
(11)
Hop charts and availability
Usi ng the precedi ng expressi ons for
ei ther of the model s, i t i s strai ghtfor-
ward to pl ot the rai n attenuati on for a
gi ven frequency, pol ari zati on and avai l -
abi l i ty as a functi on of hop di stance.
Once the frequency, pol ari zati on, avai l -
abi l i ty and rai n regi on are sel ected, the
a an d b coeffi ci en ts , r ai n r ate an d
Atten aRR
e
y
e e e
z
b
y RR
zd z RR RR
( )
+
( )
( )
( ) . . ( ) ln
1
0 83 0 17
1
]
1
1
1
1
1
y b
RR
RR
( )
1
]
1
1
0 83 0 17 . . ( ) ln
Atten
aRR e
y
d RR
b yd
( )
<
1
dB
where: 0< ( )
RR RR ( ) ( ) 3 8 0 6 . . ln km
Atten
Atten
p
p
0 01
0 12
0 546 0 043
.
.
. . log
+ ( ) ( )
d e
RR
0
0 015
35
.
km
A B C D E F G H J K L M N P
8 12 15 19 22 28 30 32 35 42 60 63 95 145
Table 1. ITU rain rate data (mm/hr) for 0.9999 availability.
Availability A B B1 B2 C D1 D2 D3 E F G H
0.99 0.2 1.2 0.8 1.4 1.8 2.2 3.0 4.6 7.0 0.6 8.4 12.4
0.999 2.5 5.7 4.5 6.8 7.7 10.3 15.1 22.4 36.2 5.3 31.3 66.5
0.9999 9.9 21.1 16.1 25.8 29.5 36.2 46.8 61.6 91.5 22.2 90.2 209.3
099995 13.8 29.2 22.3 35.7 41.4 49.2 62.1 78.7 112 31.9 118 283.4
0.99999 28.1 52.5 42.6 63.8 71.6 86.6 114.1 133.2 176 70.7 197 542.6
Table 2. Crane rain rate data in mm/hr vs. availability.
Figure 4. Five-nines hop distance chart, 28 GHz, Crane rain model.
64 www.rfdesign.com May 2002
adjustment factor (i f any) are fi xed. The
rai n attenuati on then becomes a func-
ti on of the di stance, d, onl y.
Fi gure 1 shows a pl ot of the expected
rai n fade for a 0.99999 rai n vs. hop di s-
tance for several di fferent rai n regi ons.
The col ored curves represent the fi ve-
ni nes rai n attenuati on vs. di stance for
the respecti ve rai n regi ons. The bl ack
system gai n curves represent the avai l -
abl e fade margi n for systems wi th di f-
ferent system gai ns.
The Fr i i s equati on gi ves the fr ee-
space l oss as a functi on of di stance.
(12)
For ter r estr i al l i nks at fr equenci es
bel ow about 55 GHz, gaseous absorp-
ti on can be i gnored unl ess the l i nk di s-
tance i s substanti al . Mul ti path fadi ng
i s usual l y mi ni mal because the l i nks
are stati onary and the antenna beams
are rel ati vel y narrow. Thus, the free-
space l oss provi des a good esti mate of
the path l oss for a poi nt-to-poi nt l i nk.
The pri mary source of outages i s pre-
ci pi tati on. The av ai l abl e r ai n fade
mar gi n for a gi ven l i nk can then be
computed as the system gai n mi nus
the free-space l oss.
By superi mposi ng a pl ot of the sys-
tem gai n mi nus the free-space l oss as
a functi on of range onto the rai n atten-
uati on curves, a hop di stance chart i s
pr oduced. Fi gur e 1 shows a hop di s-
tan ce ch ar t for a 39 GHz, v er ti cal
pol ar i zati on l i nk for thr ee di ffer ent
system gai ns. The poi nt where a sys-
tem gai n curve i ntersects a rai n atten-
uati on curve i s the maxi mum 0.99999
avai l abi l i ty l i nk di stance for that sys-
tem i n the sel ected r ai n r egi on. The
poi nt where they i ntersect i s the range
where the rai n fade margi n of the l i nk
i s equ al to th e 0.99999 r ai n -fade
depth. For exampl e, for a 170 dB sys-
tem i n r ai n r egi on A, the fi ve-ni nes
hop di stance i s 7.6 km.
Fi gur e 2 shows a si mi l ar hop di s-
tance char t usi ng the Cr ane model
and data. Because the rai n regi ons for
Crane and I TU are defi ned di fferentl y,
i t i s not possi bl e to make di rect com-
pari sons between the two model s. I t i s
possi bl e to pi ck a par ti cul ar ci ty or
geogr aphi c r egi on and compar e the
pr edi cted per for mance at that l oca-
ti on. For i nstance, Or l ando i s i n I TU
regi on N and Crane regi on E, so a
170 dB system has an expected fi ve-
ni nes hop di stance of 970 meters usi ng
I TU and 1000 meters usi ng Crane. For
val ues of system gai ns not shown, two
curves can be l i nearl y i nterpol ated.
The hop di stance char t pr ovi des a
gr aphi cal means of deter mi ni ng at
what hop di stance the rai n attenuati on
i s equal to the fade margi n. The i nter-
secti on can be determi ned usi ng i tera-
ti on on a computer. Because the atten-
uati on model mi nus the free-space l oss
i s a transcendental functi on, i t cannot
be sol ved di rectl y. Whi l e not as preci se,
the gr aphi cal sol uti on pr ovi des mor e
i nformati on than a numeri cal sol uti on.
For ex ampl e, i n th e dr i er r egi on s ,
where the rai n attenuati on curve has
l ess sl ope, i t can be seen that a smal l
change i n the system gai n can resul t i n
a substanti al change i n the pr edi cted
h op di s tan ce. Th i s becomes mor e
apparent at l ower avai l abi l i ti es such as
th e fou r -n i n es h op di s tan ce ch ar t
shown i n Fi gure 3.
Fi gu r e 4 s h ows a fi v e-n i n es h op
chart at 28 GHz. At the l ower frequen-
cy, the i mpact of r ai n attenuati on i s
l ess severe than at 39 GHz, so the cor-
respondi ng hop di stances are l onger. I t
i s al so noteworthy that the rai n atten-
uati on i s sl i ghtl y gr eater on hor i zon-
tal l y pol ar i zed si gnal s than on ver ti -
cal l y pol ar i zed si gnal s. The a and b
factor s i n the attenuati on model ar e
di ffer ent for hor i zontal and ver ti cal
pol ar i zati on. Thi s i s a consi der ati on
for dual pol ari zati on systems because
the performance i n rai n wi l l be l i mi ted
by the hori zontal l y pol ari zed si gnal .
A common questi on encountered by
r adi o vendor s i s: My hop di stance i s
l onger than the maxi mum fi ve-ni nes
hop di stance. What wi l l the actual
avai l abi l i ty be? Thi s i s an i mportant
questi on. Fr om an oper ati onal stand-
poi nt, 0.99997 i s not profoundl y di ffer-
ent from 0.99999 avai l abi l i ty. Usi ng the
I TU model (wi th the adjustment factor),
a fami l y of curves showi ng avai l abi l i ty
vs. hop di stance can be generated for a
gi ven system gai n. Fi gur e 5 shows a
sampl e avai l abi l i ty chart for a system
gai n of 170 dB. I t must be remembered
that thi s curve i s onl y val i d for the stat-
ed system gai n. Usi ng such a curve, the
avai l abi l i ty can be esti mated for any
hop di stance once the rai n regi on and
system gai n have been establ i shed.
Summary
Thi s ar ti cl e di scussed how to l ook
past typi cal mar keti ng speci fi cati ons
and get to the sol i d numbers that wi l l
permi t esti mati on of l i nk performance
wi th a hi gh degree of certai nty. Once a
set of sol i d r adi o speci fi cati ons ar e i n
hand, the domi nant l i mi tati on of l i nk
avai l abi l i ty i s the rai n fade. Two popul ar
methods for model i ng rai n fade and how
they rel ate to avai l abi l i ty were exam-
i ned. A hop di stance chart was generat-
ed and di scussed. Fi nal l y, a pl ot of
expected avai l abi l i ty vs. hop di stance for
a gi ven system gai n was presented.
L
d
_
,
20
4
log
dB
Figure 5. Availability vs. hop distance for vertical polarization, 39 GHz.
Continued on page 66
66 www.rfdesign.com May 2002
References
[1] Output Back-Off Requi r ements
for Root Rai sed-Cosi ne Fi l tered Di gi tal
Si gnal s , John S. Seybol d, Ph.D., RF
Desi gn, 2001
[2] Code of Federal Regul ati ons, Ti tl e
47, Vol ume 5, 101.517, Revi sed as of
October 1, 2000
[3] I TU Recommendati on PN837-1,
Rec838, Rec.I TU-R P.530-7
[ 4] El ectr omagn eti c Wav e
Pr opagati on Thr ough Rai n, Rober t
Cr ane, John Wi l ey & Sons, Febr uar y
1996.
About the author
John S. Seybol d recei ved hi s B.S.E.E. from the Uni versi ty of Wi sconsi n i n 1982,
hi s M.S.E.E. from Cal i forni a State Uni versi ty, Ful l erton, i n 1986 and hi s Ph.D.
from the Uni versi ty of Central Fl ori da i n 1995. Seybol d i s an associ ate professor
of el ectri cal engi neeri ng at Fl ori da I nsti tute of Technol ogy i n Mel bourne, FL,
wher e he al so ser ves as the associ ate di r ector of thei r Wi r el ess Center of
Excel l ence. Seybol d hel d a vari ety of posi ti ons i n the i ndustry pri or to joi ni ng the
facul ty at Fl ori da Tech. Most recentl y, he was a seni or RF systems anal yst at
Tri ton Network Systems, where he was responsi bl e for RF network pl anni ng, l i nk
outage predi cti on and frequency re-use anal ysi s. Seybol d has al so worked i n radar
systems, syntheti c aperture radar (SAR) and communi cati ons systems, i ncl udi ng
spread spectrum. He i s a l i censed professi onal engi neer i n the state of Fl ori da, a
seni or member of the I EEE and a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi . He
can be contacted at: jseybold@mpinet.net.