Numerical study on fluctuation characteristics of millimeter-wave rain attenuation

The application of millimeter waves constitutes a key component of the fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless technologies, yet rainy weather can impose adverse impacts on wireless channels. In this paper, the dielectric mixture model with full consideration of the influence of rainfall drop size distribution (DSD) is used to predict the specific attenuation of millimeter waves. The fluctuation characteristics of rain attenuation are characterized by an empirical lognormal distribution formula. Simulation results show that the specific attenuation predicted by the dielectric mixture model is close to the measured average when the traditional Weibull DSD is applied to the prediction of two specific wireless links. Moreover, the distribution of simulated specific attenuation under a fixed rainfall rate exhibits good agreement with the measured data. The fluctuation characteristics of rain attenuation are explained by adjusting the parameters of the Weibull DSD.