Analysis of the Fading Problem on Microwave Links Along the West Coast of Saudi Arabia PDF

Keywords

microwave, Saudi Arabia, fading problem

Abstract

An analysis of the fading problem encountered on a microwave link along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia is presented. The analysis is based on field measurements of two received signals at 4 and 6 GHz. Obstruction and multipath fading are identified to be the main types of fading which cause the outage of this link. Analyses of possible diversity improvement are presented for both frequency and space diversity . It is shown that modified antenna system design or practical increase in tower heights are unlikely to bring a satisfactory solution to the problem. Moving some of the tower sites away from the coast will lead, possibly, to more reliable system performance.