A method to predict line-of-sight link outages due to multipath conditions

For high-bit-rate digital microwave line-of-sight links the quality of transmission depends on the characteristics of both the propagation channel and the equipment. In most prediction methods now under development, one tries, as far as possible, to separate these two groups of factors, the state of the channel being described by a statistical propagation model, and the behaviour of the equipment by a set of signature curves. The authors present the various steps of the development of a prediction method, indicating for each step what is founded on experiment and what results from theoretical considerations or simulations. The method is then applied to hypothetical links