Satellites

Prediction from space down to earth

Prediction of the Mobile Radio Channel for Satellite Transmitters

Transmitters in ProMan must not be terrestrial. Also satellite transmitters can be considered. Geostationary satellites are defined by their height (e.g. 36,000 km) and their longitude. All LEOs and navigation satellites are described either by the Two Line Element method or for the GPS satellites by the data provided in the Almanac. Antenna gains for the satellite transmitters are considered in the path loss predictions. 

 

The satellite radio transmission to the mobile terminal is strongly affected by the variation of the received signal power because of the presence of fading phenomena (slow fading due to obstacles and fast fading due to multipath propagation). Multipath propagation arises from signal reflection and diffraction on obstacles. In satellite communications, the received signal is usually the superposition of two components: a main path and a summation of time-delayed scattered paths. The occurence of these fading phenomena can be predicted with ProMan by using specific wave propagation models depending on the environment.

 

Wave Propagation Model for Wide Areas

For wide areas (corresponding to thousands of km^2) the empirical prediction model according to DLR is used. This model  provides realistic and representative characterisations of the land mobile satellite (LMS) radio channel based on the evaluation of measurement data without taking into account a specific transmitter-receiver configuration. The prediction of the channel impulse response depends on the elevation of the satellite and the land usage (clutter) at the receiver location.

 

The following clutter types are supported:

  • urban

  • sub-urban

  • rural

  • open

Satellite LOS Prediction based on clutter map

The wideband channel model uses three submodels describing the different parts of the impulse response depending on the echo delay: direct path, near echos and far echos. The impulse response of the satellite wideband channel is then superposed by a sum of all echos.

 

ProMan needs topographical and clutter databases to work with the DLR model.

Wave Propagation Model for Urban Areas

The mobile radio channel in urban environments is characterised by multipath propagation. Dominant propagation mechanisms in these scenarios are reflection, diffraction and shadowing by discrete obstacles. With an ray optical approach it is possible to consider these effects in a wave propagation model. The urban ray-optical propagation model (IRT) included in ProMan is used for the prediction of

  • LOS / NLOS status

  • Received power

  • Channel impulse response (CIR)

ProMan needs building (and optionally topographical) databases to work with the ray-optical prediction model (IRT).

Satellite received power in Munich

Modelling of the Satellite to Indoor Channel

The satellite to indoor propagation channel is becoming of significant importance (especially in L and S bands) as future satellite mobile communication, broadcast and navigation systems (as e.g. S-DMB and Galileo) are aiming at optimum performance in all kind of environments, i.e. even in indoor scenarios. The indoor scenarios are of special relevance for the attractiveness of new MSS services in order to provide ubiquitous coverage over all environments.

Of course also the penetration into buildings can be computed with ProMan. To see the influence of the walls (and their materials) inside the building and the neighboring buildings, the ray-optical propagation models are used for the prediction of

  • Received power

  • Channel impulse response (CIR)

As basis for the computation ProMan needs an indoor database (including the outdoor walls of the neighboring buildings) which will be used as input for the ray-optical prediction model.

Examples

Here are some sample predicitons presented. Please click on the pictures to enlarge them.

 

Predicted channel profile for satellite transmitter
Predicted channel profile (relative delays) for hybrid network in
urban enviroment
 

 

Download a brochure about Satellite Propagation.

Read more about the urban prediction models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Our partners in the satellite area:
(alphabetical order)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Satellite Broadcasting


Satellite propagation models are mandatory for the planning of satellite broadcasting services. AWE Communications offers for example products for the planning of SDMB networks.

Satellite Positioning 


GPS and Galileo are and will be used for the positioning / localization of users in cellular networks. ProMan offers a platform to analyze the accuracy of the localization of users in cellular networks.

Brochure


Find more information related to the satellite propagation models in the corresponding brochure whioch can be downloaded here.