Preliminary Design of a Propagation Experiment for a Radio Link Analysis at W Band

Nowadays W band (75 - 110 GHz) is an experimental frontier since no satellite telecommunication mission has been developed and the technology at these frequencies is still poor and relatively not ready. In this framework, a preliminary useful step toward the W band exploitation in satellite telecommunications is represented by the analysis and the validation of a terrestrial link operating at these frequencies with the capability to carry out transmission/reception experiments. Such experiment could give important feedback from the technology point of view and also for the channel characterization. In this frame, the University of Rome Tor Vergata in collaboration with the company Rheinmetall Italy is carrying out an experiment to investigate a W band terrestrial point-to-point link over a distance of around 15 km. Many technological issues must be faced. In this paper, we present an overview of preliminary design of an experimental W band terrestrial air link identifying main critical elements.