Tel4Rain
High-resolution precipitation measurements using telecommunication microwave links.
The primary impetus for the development of Tel4Rain was basic research into the interaction of raindrops with electromagnetic waves along the length of radio links for hydrometeorological purposes, where rainfall intensity or evaporation can be inferred from signal attenuation. Telecommunication networks of mobile operators include thousands of such links, which can be used as rainfall sensors with real-time data collection and transmission from the entireCzech Republic or another country.
What problems does it solve for its customers?
In this way, we solve the generally poor availability of meteorological data, including its visual display in time and space, for both professional entities and the general public.
Tel4Rain is an innovative application that uses commercial microwave links of mobile telecommunication networks to measure rainfall as a complement to conventional measurement methods.
Commercial microwave links represent a prominent example of sensors that are primarily used for other purposes and have wide continental coverage. Commercial microwave links are point-to-point radio links that operate at frequencies where the radio signal is significantly attenuated by raindrops. Signal attenuation is strongly dependent on the intensity of rain along the path of the microwave link. This attenuation effect makes microwave links potentially very accurate rain sensors.
Product development phase
Software and database applications are completed:
- Tel4Rain Data Collector - data collection application
- Tel4Rain Data Processing - application for data processing and evaluation
- Tel4Rain FrontEnd - application for accessing backend data
CTU can also offer measurement as a service:
- Application deployment and operation, data collection and processing, data access.
Method of commercialization
We are looking for a licensing partner.
Technical specification
The Tel4Rain application consists of several basic modules. "Tel4Rain Data Collector" is a database application for data collection in the internal surveillance network of a mobile operator, which queries and collects Transmitted and Received Signal Level (TRSL) data from individual devices using SNMP protocol. The "Tel4Rain Interface" ensures secure data transfer from the surveillance network to the Internet. "Tel4Rain Data Processing" is a computational module that integrates the data to a basic time step of 1 minute, converts the attenuation data to rainfall intensity using derived algorithms and interpolates the data to a 1x1 km2 grid. All data are stored in the "Tel4Rain Past Data Storage". The frontend of the application is a Java script web client that allows the user to query and display different types of processed data in time and space. The web client also makes use of the external Highcharts and Leaflet libraries.
Are you interested in this technology?
If you are interested in our technology, products and services, please contact the Technology Transfer Coordinator by phone or email:
