Performance prediction for microwave digital radio relay systems

A digital radio relay system performance prediction model has been described which calculates the probability of outage for a link equipped with or without space diversity protection. The model gives severely-errored seconds outage predictions for an `average worst month´, as well as for a specific period of measured fading on a link. Estimates of the variability of the so called average worst month outage are also provided. The model has been tested against the measured performance of a reduced bandwidth QPSK system and a 16-QAM system on the Swaffham-Mendlesham link in the UK. The predictions from the model were within 0.6 to 2.1 times of the observed SES outages. For use in British Telecom, the model has been incorporated into a software package called DRUMBEAT which operates in an interactive fashion for use in the selection of DRRSs, as well as in the planning process