Experimental validation of heavy rain attenuation in E-band based on climate wind tunnel measurements at 77 GHz

Attenuation measurements through extreme rain in a climate wind tunnel are carried out to benchmark the possibility of wireless data transmission at 77 GHz during adverse weather conditions. Based on a network analyzer and external E-band mixers, the propagation loss at 77 GHz is obtained over a distance of 180 m using a corner reflector at the end of a 90-m tunnel. Comparing the results to prediction models like the ITU-R P.838, a large deviation of several tens of dB/km was found for high rain rates when the drop size distribution is neglected. In the paper, the authors use known attenuation models based on rain drop distribution functions to explain the high measured attenuation during the testing, demonstrating a large variation of specific attenuation under heavy rain at high microwave frequencies.