Land Mobile Satellite Communication Channel Model for Simultaneous Transmission From a Land Mobile Terminal Via Two Separate Satellites

There are certain data services that could use transmit-only land-mobile satellite communication terminals. Such terminals would not be able to receive acknowledged messages and transmit them onward. Thus it is of interest to study alternative means of improving the system reliability. In this paper we propose the use of transmission to two satellites separated in azimuth and elevation in order to improve the reliability of throughput. We have investigated the improvements by building upon the model proposed by Lutz for land mobile satellite communications via one satellite, and extended this using measurements of the shadowing coefficient in different areas (suburban, countryside and city) to two separated satellites. The measured data is used to produce an empirical model of the equivalent shadowing coefficient variations with the separation angle variation between two satellites. The results show good agreement with the shadowing coefficients produced by the Lutz model for a single satellite. The degree of improvement produced by using two separated satellites in the different environments, in terms of bit rate and probability of the received power is given.