Tropospheric Ducting TDMM
Tropospheric Ducting TDMM
Tropospheric Ducting TDMM
The behavior?
Statistics.
Any remedies?
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The behavior
Understanding tropospheric ducting
What?
Propagation enhancements in radio waves due to an atmospheric condition called
temperature inversion extending the cell range far beyond its predicted service area.
How?
Temp Inversion forms a “warm air layer, over cold air” (converse of normal behavior)
Area between ground and warm air forms a waveguide, i.e. a duct!
Duct prevents RF wave from exiting into outer sphere and turns it back to ground.
Impact?
Duct behaves like giant fiber optic in the atmosphere!
Produces unforeseen co and adjacent channel interference within the system.
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Why RF more prone to ducting than Microwave?
Facts and examples
Due to lower frequencies and larger vertical beam width, RF waves are more
4 vulnerable to ducting trap compared to microwaves.
Why RF more prone to ducting than Microwave? (2)
References
Source: Integrated Publishing
Article: Weather vs. Propagation
URL: http://www.tpub.com/neets/book10/40j.htm
Source: Wikipedia
Article: Notable Tropospheric Ducting Receptions
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation
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Why South-II more hit than other TP regions?
Facts and examples
Reference #1:
Ducting happens in areas near or between water belts i.e where the water vapor
concentration in air is high.
Source: Bird Technologies (Global RF service providers based in US)
Article: It’s Duct Hunting season
URL: http://www.birdrf.com/~/media/Bird/Files/PDF/Resources/white-papers/Duct-Hunting-Season.ashx
Reference #2:
Temperature inversions occur most frequently along coastal areas bordering large
bodies of water. This is the result of natural onshore movement of cool, humid air
shortly after sunset when the ground air cools more quickly than the upper air
layers. The same action may take place in the morning when the rising sun warms
the upper layers.
Source: AB9IL.net (Online information portal)
Article: Tropospheric Ducting Conditions
URL: https://www.ab9il.net/space-weather/spacewx4.html
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Why South-II more hit than other TP regions?
Facts and examples
Reference #3:
Ducting predictions from authentic website DX Info Centre display the severity of
effect in South-II region compared to rest of Pakistan.
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Statistics (2014)
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Cluster level impact of ducting (WK 49 vs. WK 51)
S2 MPD:
WK 49 (5th Dec): 116 min
WK 51 (17th Dec): 158 min
Ducting related degradation = 40 min
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Any Remedies?
Just one! Aggressive downtilt of RF antennas during ducting season
However, this comes with a cost of significant Traffic (and revenue) loss
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Thank you
Backup Slides
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Statistics (2011)
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Statistics (2012)
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Statistics (2013)
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