Large Scale Site Diversity Experimental Campaign Between Greece and UK Using ALPHASAT: First Results

There is an imminent migration of satellite communications to higher frequency bands in order to support the next generation services; this however, poses new challenges in terms of system design. With increasing frequency signal propagation becomes more prone to atmospheric phenomena and therefore accurate channel modeling is required. In this paper an ongoing propagation campaign in Ka and Q band taking place in Greece and UK using ALPHASAT’s beacons is outlined. Some first results from the acquired measurements are presented, indicating the advantages of using site diversity techniques in feeder links; finally, a preliminary evaluation of large scale site diversity gains in terms of outage capacity is accomplished by means of simulated data.