Rain Attenuation Predictions on Millimeter-Wave Links for 5G Applications in Malaysia

Millimeter-wave will be the strong contender for the terrestrial link using for 5G networks. So it is imperative to examine these frequency bands to ensure the uninterrupted services when 5G network is connected in tropical regions like Malaysia. Attenuation caused by the rain of a terrestrial link faces a tremendous challenge to signal accessibility. The difficulties are considerably increasingly articulated in the tropical and subtropical areas where the rainfall rate is very high. The cognition of rain-induced attenuation and its performance are basic to improve network content and steadfast accessibility. The rainfall rate information is imperative to anticipate the attenuation due to rain in any area. This paper presents real-time measurements of rainfall rate data collected for thirty-six months of horizontally polarized links connected at 26 GHz and 38 GHz on a terrestrial link of 1.3km. From the measured data, a one-minute integration time rain intensity rate found around 116 mm/hr. Recently, ITU-R shows lower forecasts to estimate the rainfall rate for Malaysia. This investigation highlights the need for correction of the rain intensity rate for Malaysia and the new prediction models for a distance of more than 1km for 5G networks. Thus, it helps to improve the terrestrial links operating at millimeter-wave frequencies in tropical areas. The measured rainfall rate data and ITU-R rainfall rate are compared to estimate rain attenuation for terrestrial links operating at millimeter-wave bands for path-length more than 1km. The deviations are found significantly higher at higher path lengths.