Wireless network of rain gauges with application to radiocommunication systems affected by rain fade

The wireless access networks based on millimetre wavelength technologies are mainly impaired by rain. To evaluate the rain effects over a communication system, it is essential to know the temporal and spatial evolution of rainfall rate. For this reason it is necessary to develop an experimental network which provides the adequate data to study, prevent and compensate the rain fade. In this paper, an experimental rain gauge network is presented. This network comprises weather stations capable of measuring rainfall rate, temperature and humidity. The paper describes first the experimental network for automatic data acquisition as a system based in a distributed process. The design of the experimental network is explained in detail and finally the interest for millimetre wavelength applications is pointed out.