Radio communication systems operating at microwave frequencies are strongly attenuated by hydrometeors such as rain and wet snow (sleet). Hydrometeor attenuation dominates the dynamic fading of most types of radio links operating above 10 GHz, especially high capacity, fixed, terrestrial and Earth-Space links. The International Telecommunication Unions – Radio Section (ITU-R) provides a set of internationally recognized models to predict annual fade distributions for a wide variety of individual radio link. However, these models are not sufficient for the design and optimisation of networks, even as simple as two links. There are considerable potential gains to be achieved from the optimized design of real-time or predictive Dynamic Resource Management systems. The development of these systems requires a joint channel simulation tool applicable to arbitrary, heterogeneous networks. This thesis describes the development of a network fade simulation tool, known as GINSIM, which can simulate joint dynamic fade time-series on heterogeneous networks of arbitrary geometry, spanning Europe.GINSIM uses as input meteorological and topological data from a variety of sources and numerically calculates the joint effects on fading on all links in a specified network. ITU-R models are used to transform rain rate into specific attenuation and to estimate the specific attenuation amplification due to non-liquid hydrometeors. The resulting simulation tool has been verified against ITU-R models of average annual fade distributions, fade slope and fade duration distributions, in the southern UK. Validation has also been performed against measured terrestrial and Earth-space link data, acquired in the Southern UK and Scotland.
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