Propagation in the design and planning of radio systems

This paper reviews the dominant atmospheric effects on radiowave propagation for satellite links and presents results of their application in the analysis and design of three example systems. The propagation effects models are applied in novel ways to accurately and optimally arrive at the system design requirements. An asymmetrical data communication system at Ku band is considered both with a transparent transponder and a regenerative repeater. As much as availability objectives are easily met, the quality objectives can only be met in the latter case by carefully considering conditional fade duration statistics. Finally, a Ka band system is considered with dual fade countermeasure. Its analysis shows that an overall effective margin gain of almost 10dB can be achieved by the combined mitigation method for a high availability requirement.