Ka-band space diversity study by using TRMM Nasa data in tropical region for satellite communication

Abstract

Commercial exploitation of the KaBand for satellite communications is in the development stage, while V-band services have been planned, to access the large bandwidths allocated at these frequencies for satellite communication and other applications. Better understanding of ,the propagation characteristics in these bands is desirable, both to develop and validate models to predict propagation impairments, and for development of technique to mitigate the propagation impairments. One impairments mitigation technique that offers potential for many applications is space diversity. This technique is very effective for satellite communication in tropical regions, because these regions always experience heavy rainfall and relatively bigger raindrop compared to the temperature regions. The objectives of this study are to detennines the vertical rain profile such as rain rate, rain attenuation, and single site diversity gain for space diversity in satellite communication operating in tropical region. Vertical rain profile will be determined from NASA Precipitation Radar (PR) data from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missions (TRMM). Comparison with weather radar and rain gauge data will be carried out.