Abstract—Availability is considered as the main parameter of evaluating a Hybrid FSO/RF link quality. An accurate carrier class availability prediction of Hybrid FSO/RF is needed. In tropical regions, among different weather influences, rain plays a major role. Precipitation decrees are available for frequencies above 10 GHz. In this paper we will analyze the effect of rain on Hybrid FSO/RF to find the optimum operating frequency to back-up the FSO link besides tradeoff between speed of RF and link availability of FSO in tropical environment; we will also provide better prediction of link availability. ITU-R specific rain attenuation of FSO and RF models has been used for the analysis. From the results, a 30 GHz and below are suggested to be used as a back-up of FSO link to achieve carrier grade availability under the impact of rain.

Index Terms—Carrier grade availability, heavy rain attenuation hybrid FSO/RF, ITU-R specific rain attenuation models.

The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at IIUM, 53100 KL, Malaysia (e-mail: ba_sahal@hotmail.com, wajdi@iium.edu.my).

Cite:Ahmed Basahel and Wajdi Al-Khateeb, "Carrier Class Availability Prediction for Hybrid FSO/RF System in Heavy Rainfall Regions Based on ITU-R Models," International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 404-407, 2014.