A physically based rain attenuation model for terrestrial links

This contribution presents a novel physically based approach to modeling the rain attenuation affecting terrestrial links. The model is devised by investigating the path reduction factor (PF) on terrestrial links, a typical element of rain attenuation prediction models introduced to take into due account the spatial inhomogeneity of rainfall. To this aim, a large number of PF values are analyzed by simulating the interaction of a hypothetical terrestrial link with a set of realistic synthetic rain fields. The dependence of PF on different parameters such as the path length, the operational frequency, and the rain rate measured at the transmitter is addressed, and the results are exploited to devise analytical expressions aiming to provide an accurate yet simple approach to predicting rain attenuation on terrestrial links. Finally, the prediction accuracy of the proposed method is discussed (and compared to the one of other two models) by considering experimental data collected worldwide.