Analyses of mobile satellite signal performance in the presence of ground blockage: A GPS approach

The presence of ground blockages such as buildings or multi-level highways play a very important role in determining the quality of service perceived by the mobile satellite (MS) users. Not only the MS users will experience signal fluctuations, in some cases signal lost might occur. Raw MS propagation data would be able to provide the insight into these crucial problems. The availability of the MS propagation data would enable the effects of ground blockages to be extensively studied and understood in order to minimize them and to provide real-time knowledge about the received signal performance. This paper presents the analyses of the MS propagation data obtained using the cost effective, portable and commercial GPS receiver. The analyses results will show the relationship between the MS received signal performance and the ground blockages. The feasibility of using GPS in the study of MS link performance will also be validated. The outcome of this research work will be useful for MS service providers and network developers to find the optimum methods that can mitigate problems faced by MS users.