Atmospheric Effects on OFDM Wireless Links Operating in the Millimeter Wave Regime

The development of millimeter wave communication links and the allocation of bands within the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) range for the next generation cellular network present significant challenges due to the unique propagation effects emerging in this regime of frequencies. This includes susceptibility to amplitude and phase distortions caused by weather conditions. In the current paper, the widely used Orthogonal Division Frequency Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission scheme is tested for resilience against weather-induced attenuation and phase shifts, focusing on the effect of rainfall rates. Operating frequency bands, channel bandwidth, and other modulation parameters were selected according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification. The performance and the quality of the wireless link is analyzed via constellation diagram and BER (Bit Error Rate) performance chart. Simulation results indicate that OFDM channel performance can be significantly improved by consideration of the local atmospheric conditions while decoding the information by the receiver demodulator. It is also demonstrated that monitoring the weather conditions and employing a corresponding phase compensation assist in the correction of signal distortions caused by the atmospheric dispersion, and consequently leads to a lower bit error rate.