Design and Construction of a Weather Instrument and Its Use in Measurements to Determine the Effects of Some Weather Parameters on GSM Signal Strength
Christian Solomon Akpan, Michael U. Onuu · Advances in Applied Sciences · 2021
The design and construction of a weather instrument and its application to study the effects of some weather parameters on GSM signal strength in Port Harcourt metropolis have been successfully carried out. The design was implemented using a DHT11 humidity and temperature sensor, and Sim900 GSM module/A6 GSM module; 20x4-character Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and an ATMEGA 8 microcontroller. The constructed device was used to measure relative humidity, temperature and signal strength. The values obtained were in good agreement with those got using a standard weather station as the designed and constructed weather instrument which was calibrated against the standard weather station in Port Harcourt measured relative humidity and temperature, with accuracy of about 98.3% and 86%, respectively. Physical measurements were carried out using the constructed weather station from July to December, 2017 covering the wet and dry seasons/part of harmarttan period in the study area. The data were analyzed using Microsoft excels 2013 version and analogue plots were digitized/quantized for more effective study of the fluctuations during the seasons by considering the peaks, dips and peak-to-dip values. Results showed that changes in weather conditions affect GSM signal strength, significantly. Variation in signal strength can be best explained by the variation in temperature which appears to be the best explanatory variable for signal strength variation and has a negative linear effect on signal strength. Relative humidity also has effects on signal strength, particularly in the months of November and December. Generally, the correlation between GSM signal strength, and temperature and relative humidity is negative and low/poor. Signal strength fluctuations were least in August/September and highest in December when the atmosphere is least and most perturbed, respectively. Our findings will be useful in designing GSM algorithms and protocols which are adaptive against the effects of weather and in GSM transmission planning in this part of the world.