Fade and non-fade duration statistics for Earth-space satellitelink in Ku-band

The choice of modulation and forward error correction coding for satellite communications depends on fade dynamics and long-term fade occurrence statistics. An investigation is presented of the fade duration and inter-fade duration measured with a dual slope Ku-band radiometer as well as a Ku-band INTELSAT VI beacon receiver in Singapore which has an equatorial climate. A comparison of the results from both the measurements is presented. The normalised fade duration obtained follows a lognormal distribution with median of 1.3 and a standard deviation of 2     

Fade margin calculation for channels impaired by Rician fading

Excess path loss due to multipath severely restricts the performance of power limited mobile networks such as those using satellite-aided links. To reduce multipath related losses, the higher elevation angle of the spacecraft can be exploited by utilizing mobile antennas which reduce the strength of the multipath reflections in favor of the line-of-sight signal. The presence of a strong and stable path in a fading link will change the envelope statistics of the received waveform from Rayleigh to a more favorable Rician distribution. It is determined that the excess path loss, or fade margin, of a Rician channel when coherent detection of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or quaternary phase shift keying (QPSK) signals is considered. The results are presented parametrically such that they can be applied to a wide range of propagation characteristics from heavy fading to nonfading situations. Furthermore, similar results are also given for the case where only limited coverage is provided.     

Fade statistics measured by ETS-V in Japan for L-band land-mobilesatellite communication systems

Fade statistics were measured along 4095 km of expressways using a 12 dBi gain antenna with an automatic tracking system. The results show that the line-of-sight statistics, which were available for more than 90% of total distance, can be described by a Rician distribution with Rician factors of 15 to 25 dB     

Fade slope statistics for three 12-GHz satellite beacon links inBrazil

The fade slope is defined as the rate of increase or decrease of attenuation over time. The possible correlation between the statistics of fade slope values and attenuation levels is investigated. Results show a direct positive correlation between the mean values of fade slope and the attenuation levels. The distributions of fade slope values present a degree of skewness toward the negative values that makes the curves depart from the Gaussian distribution observed by other authors     

Fade characteristics for K-band land-mobile satellite channels inTokyo measured using COMETS

The K-band fade statistics in Tokyo were measured using an antenna (beamwidth of 19.5° in elevation and 6.5° in azimuth) at elevations ranging from 37 to 80°. The results show that line-of sight communication is possible only ~33% of the distance at elevations <50°, But it is 98% at 80°     

Fade duration statistics ofL-band multipath fading due to sea surface reflection

Multipath fading in maritime satellite communications may be caused by a combination of sea surface reflection and tropospheric effects such as ducting and scintillations. Among them, multipath fading due to sea reflection is dominant when receiving satellite signals by use of a wide beamwidth antenna. In this paper, fade duration statistics of multipath fading due to sea surface reflection are analyzed using the data obtained by on-board experiments on theL-band (1.54 GHz). Results indicate that the mean value of fade duration and fade occurrence interval can be determined from the fading power spectrum with fairly good precision, and that the probability density function for a given time percentage, ranging from 50 to 99 percent, approximates well with the exponential distribution. Finally, based on the results obtained, a simple method for estimating the mean values of fade duration and fade occurrence interval is presented.     

Error statistics in data transmission over fading channels

We investigate the behavior of block errors which arise in data transmission on fading channels. Our approach takes into account the details of the specific coding/modulation scheme and tracks the fading process symbol by symbol. It is shown that a Markov approximation for the block error process (possibly degenerating into an identically distributed (i.i.d.) process for sufficiently fast fading) is a good model for a broad range of parameters. Also, it is observed that the relationship between the marginal error rate and the transition probability is largely insensitive to parameters such as block length, degree of forward error correction and modulation format, and depends essentially on an appropriately normalized version of the Doppler frequency. This relationship can therefore be computed in the simple case of a threshold model and then used more generally as an accurate approximation. This observation leads to a unified approach for the channel modeling, and to a simplified performance analysis of upper layer protocols     

Second-order statistics for diversity-combining techniques inNakagami-fading channels

Exact and closed-form expressions for the level crossing rate and average fade duration are presented for the M branch pure selection combining (PSC), equal gain combining (EGC), and maximal ratio combining (MRC), techniques, assuming independent branches in a Nakagami (1960) environment. The analytical results are thoroughly validated by reducing the general case to some special cases, for which the solutions are known, and by means of simulation for the more general case. The model developed here is general and can be easily applied to other fading statistics (e.g., Rice)     

On the statistics of block errors in bursty channels

In the development of encoding algorithms for image, video, and other mixed media transmissions, it is important to note that the channel “seen” by the applications is the physical channel as modified by the error-correcting mechanisms used at the physical level. Therefore, the statistics of the residual error process is relevant to the design of encoding algorithms. In this paper, we study the second- and third-order statistics of the residual error process when block transmissions are performed over a bursty channel. The effect of interleaving is explicitly studied. The conditions under which a Markovian model for the block errors is adequate are identified. Derivations of the parameters of the block error process are then presented in terms of the parameters of the bit/symbol error process. At higher data speeds an effective interleaving strategy is found to require a very large buffer     

Ka频段的抗雨衰对策

Ka频段卫星通信系统具有广阔的应用前景,该文从Ka频段雨衰的特点以及卫星通信系统上下行链路的不同特点出发,提出了自适应抗雨衰对策。详细分析了自适应杭雨衰对策的实现原理及算法,分析得出:上行链路采用自适应功率控制,下行链路采用自适应纠错编码是解决ka频段的雨衰问题的有效方法。     

Decoding with approximate channel statistics for bandlimited nonlinear satellite channels

Expressions for the cutoff rate of memoryless channels and certain channels with memory are derived assuming decoding with approximate channel statistics. For channels with memory, two different decoding techniques are examined: conventional decoders in conjunction with ideal interleaving/deinterleaving, and maximum likelihood decoders that take advantage of the channel memory. As a practical case of interest, the cutoff rate for the band-limited nonlinear satellite channel is evaluated where the modulation is assumed to be M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK). The channel nonlinearity is introduced by a limiter in cascade with a traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) at the satellite repeater while the channel memory is created by channel filters in the transmission path.     

Ordered statistics decoding of linear block codes on frequencynonselective multipath channels

This paper investigates the performance of ordered statistics decoding (OSD) of linear block codes with binary differential phase-shift-keying (2DPSK) transmission on frequency nonselective multipath channels. First, the wireless channel is modeled as a frequency nonselective, slow fading environment without intersymbol interference. Second, block interleaving is embedded to decorrelate the successive received symbols so that the performance of OSD, designed essentially for memoryless channels, is retained. Third, we derive the log-likelihood ratio of received symbols based on 2DPSK modulation. Fourth, we derive the statistics of received symbols and the statistics of received symbols after ordering. Further, we analyze the system error performance for sufficient degree of interleaving. Specifically, we derive the asymptotic bit error rate (BER) of OSD at high SNRs using the first-order approximation, finally, we conduct experiments at various channel characteristics and interleaving degrees for (128, 61, 22) extended BCH code and (24, 12, 8) extended Golay code. Results show that the error performance improves tremendously with increased interleaving degree     

Wavelet-based sequential Monte Carlo blind receivers in fading channels with unknown channel statistics

Recently, an adaptive Bayesian receiver for blind detection in flat-fading channels was developed by the present authors, based on the sequential Monte Carlo methodology. That work is built on a parametric modeling of the fading process in the form of a state-space model and assumes the knowledge of the second-order statistics of the fading channel. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric approach to the problem of blind detection in fading channels, without assuming any knowledge of the channel statistics. The basic idea is to decompose the fading process using a wavelet basis and to use the sequential Monte Carlo technique to track both the wavelet coefficients and the transmitted symbols. A novel resampling-based wavelet shrinkage technique is proposed to dynamically choose the number of wavelet coefficients to best fit the fading process. Under such a framework, blind detectors for both flat-fading channels and frequency-selective fading channels are developed. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed blind adaptive receivers.     

Fade Statistics of Wireless Multi-User Systems

In this paper, we propose a new model named effective fade duration envelope to characterize the accumulative conditional fade durations of individual users or groups of users in wireless communication systems. The proposed model has the following novelties: (1) it introduces the statistical upper and lower bounds with the required degree of confidence for accumulative conditional fade durations during any given time interval; (2) it characterizes various conditional fading circumstances in wireless multi-user communication systems.     

Fade margins for soft and hard handoffs

A particularly attractive feature of CDMA wireless systems proposed in the Telecommunication Industry Association's standard IS-95 [1] is their ability to get into what is known as soft handoff. A mobile in soft handoff maintains simultaneous radio links with multiple base-stations which enables it to make use of the best quality leg most of the time. This is believed to result in a reduction of the fade margin that is needed to provide the desired coverage in a given geographical area in the presence of log-normal shadow fading. This paper presents an analysis of fade margins for systems allowing soft handoffs (e.g. CDMA) and those where only hard handoffs are possible (e.g. FDMA, TDMA). The analysis is based on a model for hard handoffs with hysteresis and connection delay and confirms the belief that soft handoffs result in smaller fade margins.     

Burst error statistics of simulated Viterbi decoded BPSK on fadingand scintillating channels

The author presents and analyzes burst error statistics of a soft-decision Viterbi decoder when the transmitted signal is encoded with the 313 (3, 1/2) or 31123 (5, 1/2) convolutional codes, modulated via coherent binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, and subjected to slow and nonselective scintillation/fading modeled by the Nakagami-m distribution. These statistics were generated by Monte-Carlo simulations, and presented in terms of burst error length average and quantile (90 and 99%) statistics versus SNR (E_b/N₀) parameterized by the fading intensity parameter m. The results indicate how Viterbi decoder burst error statistics vary with the fading/scintillation intensity m for Nakagami-m channels, and, consequently, provide information important to the design of interleaved or noninterleaved concatenated coding schemes for such channel environments     

On blind identifiability of multipath channels using fractionalsampling and second-order cyclostationary statistics

The problem of blind identifiability of digital communication multipath channels using fractionally spaced samples is considered. Fractionally sampled data are cyclostationary rather than stationary. The problem is cast into a mathematical framework of parameter estimation for a vector stationary process with single input (information sequence) and multiple outputs, by using a time-series representation of a cyclostationary process. A necessary and sufficient condition for channel identifiability from the correlation function of the vector stationary process is derived. This result provides an alternative but equivalent statement of an existing result. Using this result, it is shown that certain class of multipath channels cannot be identified from the second-order statistics irrespective of how the sampling rate is chosen     

Fade countermeasures at Ka band for olympus

Fade countermeasure techniques that can be applied to K_a band satellite communication systems are reviewed. Considered in detail are diversity, adaptive forward error correction, fade spreading, up-link power control and adaptive TDMA. The techniques are compared for their effectiveness at K_a band, and recommendations are made for operating systems. The two important control techniques of fade detection and fade control are discussed in terms of their ease of implementation for each countermeasure technique. Details of a planned experiment to evaluate the application of fade countermeasures to VSAT networks via the Olympus satellite are presented.