Long-term Experimental Results of Propagation in a Q-band Slant-Path Link

Abstract

A better characterization of the satellite propagation channel remains of paramount importance. Specifically, assessing the impact of the atmospheric effects in a Q/V band (40/50 GHz) satellite signal is critical when designing systems operating at such high frequency bands, which are receiving increasing attention and interest in last years. A long-term propagation experiment is being carried out in Madrid, receiving the 40-GHz beacon signal of the Alphasat satellite since 2014. This paper presents the rainfall rate and attenuation results for the first completed 9 years of the experiment, as well as to compare them with several ITU-R models. Moreover, excess attenuation is also compared with a distribution obtained from synthetizing 100 years of attenuation time series with the procedure of Rec. ITU-R P.1853-2. Both Rec ITU-R P.618-14 and the synthetized series approach yield similar results, each one behaves better for a specific probability interval.