Fade correlation and diversity effects in satellite broadcasting to mobile users in S‐band

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we present measurement results for fade correlation in time and space of signals from two satellites in geostationary orbit with 30° separation. Fade data for urban, residential and rural environments are analyzed. In addition to fade cumulative distribution function, rice factor and coherence length of individual fade signals, also the joint probability density function and the cross‐correlation for the fade from the two satellites are presented. The coherence length of single satellite fades extends to about 18 m in the urban area and is around 2 m in the rural area. The correlation coefficient of dual satellite fades is below 0.3 in the residential and rural area. In the urban area larger correlations around 0.7 occur. Based on the measured fade data the diversity gain for various network configurations are determined by simulation for a forward error correction scheme using concatenated codes in combination with random interleavers. Network configurations of interest are single‐satellite space diversity, two‐satellite space diversity, one‐satellite time diversity and two‐satellite space and time diversity. For short interleavers of 5 m the diversity gain is in the residential area of 2.3 dB for the two‐satellite space diversity, 0.3 dB for one‐satellite time diversity and 4.1 dB for two‐satellite space and time diversity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.