A site diversity model for non-geosynchronous systems: Development and preliminary results

An analytical site diversity model for non-geosynchronous (GSO) systems is presented. The model allows predicting the joint rain attenuation statistics along Earth-space links at different elevation angles, from which the site diversity gain can be also calculated. The main advantage offered by the proposed prediction model is that it takes into account the variability of rain attenuation correlation function as a function of the elevation angle (besides the obvious one on the site separation distance), which, in turn, allows its application also to non-GSO system. The proposed model, fully described by analytical expressions, offers satisfactory accuracy when applied to predict the joint rain attenuation CCDFs along non-GSO links with ground station in a tropical site.