Carrier To Multipath Characterisation and Prediction for Mobile Satellite Systems

Abstract

The effects of the propagation channel have a major part to play in the design and development of mobile satellite communication systems. These vary with respect to the elevation angle of the satellite to the user and the environment in which the system is operated. In the past decade, many propagation studies by various organisations, [1,2,3] have addressed the effects of signal attenuation with respect to elevation angle and user environment. However, there is very little data on the effects of wideband parameters with respect to elevation angle. These can be very important in characterising the channel for hand-held terminals in future satellite PCN systems, since they determine the maximum data rates or equalisation requirements for such systems. They also allow the direct and multipath contributions to the received signal strength to be separated, analysed and modelled directly, without relying on implied characteristics of the signal envelope. In this paper a particular set of wideband measurements will be presented and statistically characterised. The prime aim of the study is to compare the carrier-to-multipath behaviour for the measurements with those of standard models [8,9,10], to determine the applicability of these models and to recommend developments of these models where necessary.