Abstract
Abstract. Presented in this paper is an empirical model for long-term rain attenuation prediction and statistical prediction of site diversity gain on a slant path. Rain attenuation prediction on a slant path is derived using data collected from tropical regions, and the formula proposed is based on Gaussian distribution. The proposed rain attenuation model shows a considerable reduction in prediction error in terms of standard deviation and root-mean-square (rms) error. The site diversity prediction model is derived as a function of site separation distance, frequency of operation, elevation angle and baseline orientation angle. The novelty of the model is the inclusion of low elevation angles and a high link frequency up to 70 GHz in the model derivation. The results of comparison with Hodge, Panagopoulos and Nagaraja empirical predictions show that the proposed model provides a better performance for site separation distance and elevation angle. The overall performance of the proposed site diversity model is good, and the percentage error is within the allowable error limit approved by International Telecommunication Union – Region (ITU-R).
Highlights
In recent years, there has been a high demand for high data rates, wide bandwidths and high availability of satellite communication signals for multimedia services
In order to reduce the effect of attenuation on the communication links, several rain attenuation prediction models coupled with fade mitigation techniques have been proposed
The two proposed models are derived from tropical region rainfall data and are easy to implement for rain attenuation prediction and site diversity performance evaluation
Summary
There has been a high demand for high data rates, wide bandwidths and high availability of satellite communication signals for multimedia services. “Site diversity system” is a general term used in describing the utilization of two or more geographically separated Earth base stations in a satellite communication link to minimize the effect of attenuation due to rain during a exhaustive rainfall period This concept is employed in such a way that if two Earth base stations are separated by at least the average horizontal extent of the rain cell, the cell may likely not intersect the satellite path of both ground stations at any given time (Ippolito, 2008). The two proposed models are derived from tropical region rainfall data and are easy to implement for rain attenuation prediction and site diversity performance evaluation. The prediction capabilities of both models are tested against the ITU-R 618-10 for rain attenuation prediction, and Hodge, Panagopoulos and Nagaraja models for site diversity gain prediction are shown in Sect.
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