This paper is written specifically to be one of a group of papers on local broad-band networks published in this special issue. The task of this paper is to present an overview of system aspects while other papers in the group deal with components and field trials. The reader is, therefore, referred to other papers for detailed information on actual circuits and systems.

A microwave line-of-sight propagation experiment is carried out in Denmark at frequencies around 14 GHz. Results from long term measurements of multipath propagation are presented. The multipath fade durations are shown to be log-normally distributed. The level dependence of the probability of fading,P, the average duration of fades,\bar{t}, and the number of fades, N0, is investigated. Results show thatP \propto L^{2},\bar{t} \propto L^{2/3}andN_{0} \propto L^{4/3}. This differs from previously published results, where proportionalities of L2,LandL, respectively, have been proposed. Statistical results on enhancements above free space level are also presented. The results presented are believed to enable an improved description of the effects of multipath propagation.