Satellite link performance under rain and external interferences: Constraints to be imposed on the statistical behavior of the external interferences

Abstract

AbstractThis paper concerns an environment in which several communication systems share a common frequency band and, therefore, each system operates subject to the interference generated by the others. More specifically, the paper addresses the problem of establishing the limits that should be imposed on the transmitted interfering signals so that all systems sharing the band are able to operate adequately and none of them experiences harmful interferences. This is a well‐known problem for those working in the telecommunication regulation and standardization areas. Its solution requires studies and analysis that are usually complex and strongly depend on the technical characteristics of the systems involved. This paper presents a new technique that is able to determine, in a systematic way, the constraints to be imposed on the statistical behavior of the external interferences affecting a satellite link to guarantee that the link performance requirements are satisfied. The proposed technique considers the joint effect of the degradations due to rain and due to external interferences. In the method, a series expansion on the basis of orthonormal functions is used to represent the probability density function of the degradation due to external interferences and the limiting mask is obtained by solving a conveniently defined constrained optimization problem. The method is flexible enough to allow for the use of the rain attenuation models that are usually employed in link calculations. Two example applications are presented: one involving a satellite downlink in 19 GHz and the other an uplink in 29 GHz using power control. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.