PAPER Special Section on Wave Technologies for Wireless and Optical Communications Modeling the Point-to-Point Wireless Communication Channel under the Adverse Weather Conditions

Point-to-point optical and millimeter wave communication has recently been of interest, especially in urban areas. Its benefits include simpler and easier installation compared with a land-based line. However, this technology suffers when adverse weather conditions are present, such as rain, fog and clouds, which induce scattering and absorption of the optical wave. The effects of scattering and absorption degrade the quality of the communication link resulting in increase of bit-error-rate. Therefore, there exists a need for accurate channel characterization in order to understand and mitigate the problem. In this paper, radiative transfer theory is employed to study the behavior of amplitude modulated signal propagating through a random medium. We show the effect of the medium to a modulated signal and relate the outcome on the quality of the communication link. key words: multiple scattering, radiative transfer theory, random media, optical wave propagation, free space optics, millimeter-wave