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access icon openaccess Mitigating the effects of rain-induced fading in satellite communications systems using time diversity in concert with maximal ratio combining

  • Author(s): Leshan Uggalla 1 ; Jon Eastment 2 ; Ifiok Otung 1
    • View affiliations
  • Source: Volume 2016, Issue 6, June 2016, p. 189 – 202
    DOI:  10.1049/joe.2015.0181 , Online ISSN 2051-3305
This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Received 09/11/2015, Accepted 15/02/2016, Revised 15/02/2016, Published 19/04/2016

This paper reports on a preliminary study using EutelSat Hotbird 13A beacon data at 19.7 GHz and 29.5 GHz (scaled data) to evaluate the benefit of using Time Diversity (TD) and Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) on an experimental next generation Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz) satellite link in the UK. The authors have used the 2nd generation of video broadcasting via satellite (DVB-S2) as the broadcasting standard to investigate the novel integration of TD and MRC. The benefit of the TD and MRC scheme was quantified in terms of percentage enhancement of the link availability. Long-term statistics of rain and atmospheric attenuation were derived from a period of three year’s measurements made in Pontypridd, South Wales and in Chilbolton, England, at 19.7 GHz. A hypothetical Ka-band satellite broadcast link between Pontypridd and Chilbolton has been designed to use 29.5 GHz as the uplink frequency while 19.7 GHz is used as the downlink frequency. The paper discusses the performance enhancement provided by TD and MRC during different types of fading events. The integration of TD and MRC into the DVB-S2 standard provides the capability to continue delivering services at lower carrier-to-noise (C/N) levels by lowering the bit error rate (BER).

Inspec keywords: electromagnetic wave attenuation; diversity reception; direct broadcasting by satellite; satellite links; error statistics; rain; digital video broadcasting; atmospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; time series

Other keywords: rain-induced fading; hypothetical Ka-band satellite broadcast link; Pontypridd; long-term statistics; atmospheric attenuation; broadcasting standard; link availability; EutelSat Hotbird 13A beacon data; bit error rate reduction; DVB-S2 standard; meteorological measurements; South Wales; synthetic uplink attenuation time series; MRC scheme; satellite communications systems; TD scheme; Hot Bird 6; experimental next generation Ka-band satellite link; frequency 26.5 GHz to 40 GHz; frequency 19.7 GHz; ITU-R frequency scaling formulae; uplink frequency; maximal ratio combining; downlink attenuation time series; England; time diversity; carrier-to-noise level; link outage minimization; Chilbolton; 2nd generation-satellite video broadcasting; BER reduction; downlink frequency; UK

Subjects: Radio and television broadcasting; Satellite communication systems; Other topics in statistics

References

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