Comparison of Bit Error Rate for Propagation Mechanisms of Millimeter Waves in a Practical Communication Systems Employing PSK and FSK

Millimeter waves have opened a new door to next generation communication systems. These high-frequency signals are advantageous due to the high bandwidths, and hence, the high data rates they present. However, their main drawback is the presence of attenuation factors that adversely affect the quality of the received signal. We have described the various propagation mechanisms that lead to the attenuation of radio waves in the frequency range of 40 GHz for different modulation techniques such as m-PSK and m-FSK. The comparison shows that, as the number of signals needed to represent the digital information increases, the Bit Error Rate (BER) of the PSK system increases, while the BER of an FSK system decreases. We have concluded that BPSK, QPSK or 8FSK are the most advantageous modulation schemes in a practical communication system, under worst case climatic conditions.