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National award for combating the effects of rain on radio signals
March 13, 2000In wet and snowy weather, microwave and radio signals can become severely weakened. This is bad news for anyone who wants to be able to guarantee a reliable service whatever the weather, such as mobile phone companies and radio stations. By measuring how badly the test microwave signals fade, however, scientists in the Radiocommunications Unit at RAL will be able to work out exactly how much rain or snow is falling and where.
"These two new links will build on an experiment we are already running over Bolton in Lancashire, funded by the National Environmental Research Council," explained Dr Mike Willis, co-ordinator of the new scheme. "My colleague, John Goddard is a co-Principle Investigator of the NERC project, with Professor Anthony Holt of the University of Essex and Professor Chris Collier of the University of Salford.This new contract complements their project very neatly. In future, the existing microwave links owned by utilities and telecoms operators could be adapted to provide rainfall data more quickly and in greater detail than is currently possible. It could lead to vastly better rainfall monitoring across large parts of the country at risk from flooding."
The positioning of the Bolton equipment will also help scientists to discover how badly the signals from closely-spaced microwave links interfere with each other. This is a key concern for the RA and communications systems operators, who are trying to cram more and more radio links into an increasingly overstretched infrastructure. As a result, there are strong commercial pressures to use the radio spectrum as efficiently as possible. For example, the current spectrum auction for third generation mobile phones is expected to raise £2 billion.
"The radio spectrum supports an enormous range of services and applications and is in increasing demand by many kinds of users," explained Dave Eden from the RA. "Using the spectrum in the most efficient way is vital for the future development of communications."
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC)
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