Lightning interference in multiple antennas wireless communication systems

• This paper analyzes the interference of lightning flashes with multiple antennas wireless communicationsystems operating in the microwave band at 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz. A bit error rate (BER) measurement method was usedto evaluate BER and packet error rate (PER) during 5 heavy thunderstorms on January 25 and March 17 to 20, 2011,respectively. In addition, BER measurements also were done on January 21 and March 30, 2011 under fair weather (FW)conditions providing a baseline for comparison. The Transmitter-Receiver separation was fixed at 10 meter with line-ofsight(LOS) consideration. We infer that lightning interfered with the transmitted digital pulses which resulted in a higherrecorded BER. The maximum recorded BER was 9.9·10-1 and the average recorded BER and PER were 2.07·10-2 and2.44·10-2 respectively during the thunderstorms with the average fair weather BER and PER values under the influence ofadjacent channel interference (ACI) and co-channel interference (CCI) being 1.75·10-5 and 7.35·10-6 respectively. Weconclude that multiple antennas wireless communication systems operating at the microwave frequency can besignificantly interfered by lightning.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Engineering Science with specialization in Atmospheric Discharges

Teknisk fysik med inriktning mot atmosfäriska urladdningar

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)