Route-diversity calculation based on space and time correlation of rain attenuation in microwave feeder network

Owing to the increasing number of users who are taking advantage of different services in mobile environment the capacity requirements in the mobile networks are continuously increasing. Owing to the several advantageous attributes of the microwave connections the mobile operators often use point-to-point microwave connections in the transmission access network. However, microwave links above 10 GHz are highly influenced by precipitation especially by rain. To investigate wave propagation phenomena in three European countries with rather different meteorological conditions, the international Millimetre wave Propagation (MilliProp) project was founded in 1997. After a short description of the measurement system, the application possibilities in the network operation are presented where we also outline the applicability of network-operator-assisted route diversity system in cellular networks. From the short-term statistics of the IF power signal, equipment failures caused by ageing are also predictable. For the practical utilization of the measurement system a concept of accessibility of the measurement result is also introduced.