Beyond-Line-of-Sight Ducting Channels: Coherence Bandwidth, Coherence Time and Rain Attenuation

Atmospheric ducts trap the propagating signals by refraction. In this way, the propagating signals in the duct can propagate through beyond-line-of-sight distances (b-LoS). Although atmospheric ducts are promising candidate for b-LoS communication especially for military applications, channel characteristics of the ducting channel have not been completely modeled. In this letter, coherence time and coherence bandwidth of ducting channels are analyzed for the first time in the literature. In addition, a slant-path rain attenuation model is proposed to determine rain attenuation in ducting links for the first time. At the end, simulation results are presented for the distribution of rain loss and spectral efficiency of the system.