A Study of Gas and Rain Propagation Effects at 48 GHz for HAP Scenarios

The atmosphere and rainfall significantly limit the performance of millimeter wave links and this has to be taken into account, particularly, during planning of high altitude platform (HAP) networks. This paper presents results from the measurement and simulation of these phenomena. A simulation tool from our previous analyses of terrestrial point-to-multipoint systems has been modified for HAP systems. Based on a rainfall radar database and gas attenuation characteristics as measured by a Fabry-Perot resonator, the performance of a simple link, two-branch diversity links, and more complicated HAP scenarios are discussed.

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