Rain attenuation statistics over a terrestrial link at 32.6 GHz at Malaysia

Rain-induced attenuation in the vertically polarised signal propagating at 32.6 GHz over a terrestrial path link of 1.4 km was measured for a period of one year (i.e. from January to December 2006) at Cyberjaya (2°55'N 101°39'E). Different rain attenuation prediction models such as International Radio Communication Union (ITU-R), synthetic storm technique (SST), Moupfouma and Crane Global are compared with the annual statistics of rain attenuation that have been derived from the measured experimental data. It has been observed that the measured values differ from those predicted using ITU-R, and the Crane Global model but follow closely those predicted using SST, Moupfouma and Silva Mello et al. models, resulting in low percentage of RMS errors below 6%. The Moupfouma model was developed for prediction from 0.1 to 0.001% of the time when rain attenuation is exceeded compared to the other models.