Rain Rate Estimation Using Measurements From Commercial Telecommunications Links

In this paper, we propose a novel method for estimating the rain rate at any given point within a two-dimensional plain using measurements of the received signal level extracted from power control records of an existing deployed fixed wireless communication network. The path-average rainfall intensi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on signal processing 2009-04, Vol.57 (4), p.1616-1625
Main Authors: Goldshtein, O., Messer, H., Zinevich, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Attenuation
Communications networks
Data mining
Environmental monitoring
Exact sciences and technology
Floods
Frequency estimation
Information, signal and communications theory
Least squares methods
Microwave theory and techniques
Miscellaneous
Power control
Power measurement
Radio link
Rain
rain rate estimation
received signal level (RSL) measurements
Signal processing
Studies
Telecommunications and information theory
Wireless communication
Wireless communications
wireless microwave radio networks
Wireless networks
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Summary:In this paper, we propose a novel method for estimating the rain rate at any given point within a two-dimensional plain using measurements of the received signal level extracted from power control records of an existing deployed fixed wireless communication network. The path-average rainfall intensity along each microwave radio link is estimated from the rainfall-induced attenuation using an empirical relationship. The proposed algorithm consists of appropriate preprocessing of the links data, followed by a modified weighted least squares algorithm to infer on the rain level at any given point in space. The algorithm can be used to interpolate measurements onto a regular grid to construct a two-dimensional rainfall intensity field. The novelty of the proposed estimation method comes from its ability to be applied on an arbitrary geometry network comprising different microwave links lengths and frequencies and allowing easy integration of rain gauge observations into the model to improve estimation accuracy. The technique has been applied to an existing fixed wireless communication network comprising 22 microwave links covering an area of about 15times15 km 2 and operating at carrier frequencies of about 20 GHz. The resulting rainfall field estimates have been compared to rain gauge stations in the vicinity and to weather radar data, showing good agreement.
ISSN:1053-587X
1941-0476
DOI:10.1109/TSP.2009.2012554