Performance Evaluation of Satellite Communication Link at Millimeter Wave Based on Rain Fade Data Measured in Libya

Many outage probability events have recently been recorded in Libya because of rain attenuation impact, especially at millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum in terrestrial and satellite links. Therefore, accurate prediction of rain attenuation phenomena is highly recommended to mitigate outages due to rain fade. Rainfall statistical data measured for long-term data of 30 years were collected from five locations in Libya. Collected data were analysed and processed to convert into one–minute rain rate cumulative distribution. The model proposed by ITU-R has been utilised to predict and investigate rain fade based on converted 1-min rain rate data for sites in various climate regions in Libya in the zenith paths of the Hylas 2 satellite. The impact of different parameters such as frequency (GHz), satellite elevation (degrees), polarisation, and percentage of the year on rain fade prediction has been tested. Additionally, the essential properties of link performance have been investigated in determining dependable fade margin. The impact of rain attenuation at 28 GHz was considered for performance analysis at Benina (R0.01% 21.7 mm ∕ h) and Tripoli airport R0.01% 35.8 mm ∕ regarding link efficiency in bps/Hz and throughput in Mbps utilising Matlab. At V-band, rain fade is more challenging than at Ka in northern and most coastline zones but negligible in southern zones. V-band downlink shows that 99.99% availability is possible in all the Sothern part stations in Libya. This paper provides valuable insights into designing reliable earth-to-satellite communication links over mm-wave frequencies in Libya. This data can be used to design and optimize the link budget and to select appropriate modulation and coding schemes to mitigate the effects of rain fade.