Page 40 - ITU Journal - ICT Discoveries - Volume 1, No. 2, December 2018 - Second special issue on Data for Good

ITU JOURNAL: ICT Discoveries, Vol. 1(2), December 2018

To be able to understand and mitigate required different mitigation efforts, such as
water-related risks, data is needed to be able to take adaptive modulation and coding and other newer
informed decisions. Precise and accurate, real-time solutions, to secure reliable microwave networks
data can be used to perform better weather [12]. The possibility to measure rainfall through the
predictions and forecasts as well as to understand use of microwave links was first proposed in 2006
water-borne pollution and to be able to develop by Messer et al. [13] and since then various research
well-functioning early warning systems. groups have contributed to the area.

Today, the collection of water-related data is either Building on these ideas, in 2015, the Swedish
manual, costly or with inferior resolution. Different telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson,
methods for the collection of rain data exist, where together with the Swedish Meteorological and
rain gauges have, historically, been a major source. Hydrological Institute (SMHI) initiated a project on
However, in the past fifty years, weather radars rainfall detection and measurements utilizing
have been used, mainly in developed markets while microwave links in commercial telecommunication
satellite surveillance is the main tool for tropical networks. A 20-months’ long pilot was conducted in
regions. All these methods have their pros and cons, Gothenburg, Sweden where links from the mobile
where, for example, gauges can provide accurate network operator Hi3G Sweden were used as
data but suffers from low spatial resolution. On the rain-sensing devices, where data was obtained
other hand, radar measurements can provide a every ten seconds, measuring transmitted and
better spatial coverage, but have limitations in time receiving power from 364 microwave hops
resolution and rain intensity measurements. Water covering an area of more than 4000 km in the
2
quality measurements are mainly manual sample Gothenburg area [14]. This pilot included the
collections with a following laboratory analysis, collection and filtering of data and the development
resulting in precise data but with the disadvantage of high-resolution rain measurement algorithms for
of long lead times between sampling and result. use in commercial telecommunication networks.
Can modern telecommunication and IoT solutions
be a solution for obtaining better environmental
data to increase our understanding of water-related
issues such as rainfall and drinking water pollution?
This paper will describe two novel information and
communication technology (ICT) solutions
addressing water-related emerging issues,
impacting the Sustainable Development Goals [10].

2. RAIN DATA COLLECTION THROUGH Fig. 1 – Received power over time for a microwave link in
TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS Gothenburg, Sweden, showing attenuation during
a storm event.
Rain fade is a well-known expression in
telecommunications, referring to the adsorption The pilot resulted in an understanding that rainfall
and attenuation of microwave signals due to measurements improve monitoring by providing
atmospheric rainfall. This has been a factor affecting higher temporal resolution, greater surface
the operational characteristics and performance of coverage, higher spatial resolution of rainfall maps,
microwave systems [11] such as commonly used better ability than radar to capture peak intensities
microwave backhaul in telecommunication at local scale, near surface measurement, and more
networks. Wireless microwave backhaul is a robust sampling, compared with gauges and radar
cost-efficient solution for the transportation of solutions (see Fig. 2) [15].
voice, video and data where rain impacts have

18 © International Telecommunication Union, 2018