Towards Innovative Solutions for Monitoring Precipitation in Poorly Instrumented Regions: Real-Time System for Collecting Power Levels of Microwave Links of Mobile Phone Operators for Rainfall Quantification in Burkina Faso

Since the 1990s, mobile telecommunication networks have gradually become denser around the world. Nowadays, large parts of their backhaul network consist of commercial microwave links (CMLs). Since CML signals are attenuated by rainfall, the exploitation of records of this attenuation is an innovative and an inexpensive solution for precipitation monitoring purposes. Performance data from mobile operators' networks are crucial for the implementation of this technology. Therefore, a real-time system for collecting and storing CML power levels from the mobile phone operator Telecel Faso in Burkina Faso has been implemented. This new acquisition system, which uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), can simultaneously record the transmitted and received power levels from all the CMLs to which it has access, with a time resolution of one minute. Installed at Laboratoire des Materiaux et Environnement de l'Universite Joseph KI-ZERBO (Burkina Faso), this acquisition system is dynamic and has gradually grown from eight, in 2019, to more than 1000 radio links of Telecel Faso's network in 2021. The system covers the capital Ouagadougou and the main cities of Burkina Faso (Bobo Dioulasso, Ouahigouya, Koudougou, and Kaya) as well as the axes connecting Ouagadougou to these cities.

Automated summary

Since the 1990s, mobile telecommunication networks have become denser worldwide, with a significant portion relying on commercial microwave links (CMLs) for backhaul. By exploiting the attenuation of CML signals caused by rainfall, records of this attenuation can be used for inexpensive precipitation monitoring. To implement this technology, a real-time system has been developed to collect and store CML power levels from Telecel Faso, a mobile operator in Burkina Faso. This system, based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), has grown from eight to over 1000 radio links, covering major cities and connecting routes in Burkina Faso.