38 GHz wideband point-to-multipoint radio wave propagation study for a campus environment

This article presents the results of a fixed millimeter-wave short-hop radio wave propagation study at 38 GHz. A wideband measurement campaign was performed using three cross-campus radio links from April to August 1998 at Virginia Tech. 73,963 power delay profiles (PDPs) were recorded during different weather events such as clear sky, rain, and hail. Rain/hail attenuation, short-term signal variation, and multipath statistics were studied. The measured rain attenuation (in excess of free space) slightly exceeds the Crane (see Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Through Rain. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996) model prediction. Short-term variation of received signal strength during rain follows a Rician distribution with a K factor inversely proportional to the rain rate. The wideband measurements indicate that multipath can occur due to foliage and reflections from wet surfaces during rain.