A New Approach to Performance analysis of Point-To-Point Radio Links at Frequencies above 70 GHz

In this paper we discuss high throughput fixed point-to-point radio links in frequency bands above 70 GHz. These links are interesting as a commercial alternative to fiber connections in IP computer networks. Characteristics of equipment used for radio transmission above 70 GHz are presented. As rain is being the predominant propagation effect that causes link outages, standard rain model is described. Performance analysis in the case of adaptive radio equipment is presented. A new approach to point-to-point radio link performance analysis, that uses two dimensional rain cell models and performance criterion based on end-user experience, is proposed. This approach is compared with the standard point-to-point radio link performance analysis procedure, based on calculation of percentage of time when link is unavailable and percentage of time when link has reduced capacity. It is shown on characteristic examples that proposed performance analysis gives better insight into how rain event would really affect end-user.