Interference Studies Between Adjacent Satellite Communications Systems operating Above 10 GHz and Using Power Control as Fade Mitigation Technique

Abstract

Interference problems are arising from the spectral coexistence between satellite communication networks that operate at frequencies above 10 GHz and particularly when they employ power control as fade mitigation technique. This situation is aggravated due to tropospheric propagation phenomena. In this frequency range, rain attenuation is considered to be the dominant tropospheric fading mechanism. The conditional acceptable intersystem interference probability of the Carrier-to-Interference Ratio of a satellite terminal interfered by an adjacent satellite network is defined as a figure of merit and analytically calculated taking into account a physical-mathematical model for the rainfall medium. The correlated propagation fading phenomena over multiple slant paths are accurately incorporated. The proposed model is flexible and can be applied on a global scale since it incorporates the local climatic conditions concerning the point rainfall rate and the spatial rainfall inhomogeneity. Useful numerical results of the proposed model are obtained and the impact of various crucial operational and geometrical parameters of satellite networks' coexistence is examined. The numerical results have been also verified through simulations using a multi-dimensional rain attenuation synthesizer. Finally, simple and easy-calculated formulas for the satellite communication designers for back of the envelope computations are given.