Four Years of Total Attenuation Statistics of Earth-Space Propagation Experiments at Ka-Band in Toulouse

Abstract

The Ka-band propagation experiments conducted by ONERA in Toulouse (43.57 • E, 1.47 • N) in the southwest of France started in 2009 and is still on-going. The equipment comprises a beacon Earth station, a profiling radiometer, and a rain gauge. The ground station measures the received beacon signal using a 10-Hz sampling rate. The profiling radiometer measures the sky brightness temperatures at five Ka-band and seven V-band channels, surface temperature, surface humidity, and surface pressure. From July 2009 to March 2011, the beacon receiver recorded the 19.7-GHz (horizontal polarization) HotBird 6 beacon signal along a slant path of 38.6 • of elevation angle. Since April 2011, the beacon receiver has been recording the 20.2-GHz (vertical polarization) Astra 3B beacon signal along a slant path of 35.1 • of elevation angle. This paper aims at providing a complete description of the ONERA Data Processing Tool (in particular the methodology followed to retrieve total attenuation) used to compute 4 years (from July 2009 to June 2013) of copolar attenuation statistics.The experimental setup and the characteristics of the Earth-space links are briefly described. The complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) of total attenuation for the whole period is presented and compared with ITU-R recommendations. The measured CCDF of the rainfall rate is computed and compared with ITU-R Rec. P.837 and will also be used as input for the rain attenuation model given in ITU-R Rec. P.618. The measured CCDFs of total attenuation duration and total attenuation slope are also presented.Index Terms-Astra 3B, propagation, fade duration, fade slope, HotBird 6, Ka-band, rainfall rate, satellite communication systems, total attenuation. 0018-926X

Ka and Q band propagation experiments in Toulouse using ASTRA 3B and ALPHASAT satellites

“…At the end of March 2011, the Ka‐band beacon receiver previously used for the HotBird 6 experiment was upgraded to benefit from the better Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) of the SES ASTRA 3B Ka‐band beacon . ASTRA 3B is located on a geostationary orbit at 23.5°E of longitude.…”

“…Over the past decade, ONERA has been involved into several Earth‐space propagation experiments. From January 2008 to March 2011, ONERA operated in Toulouse, France, a beacon receiver able to collect the 19.7‐GHz beacon signal of the HotBird 6 satellite . In March 2011, the radio frequency chain was modified to be able to receive the 20.2‐GHz ASTRA 3B beacon .…”

“…From January 2008 to March 2011, ONERA operated in Toulouse, France, a beacon receiver able to collect the 19.7‐GHz beacon signal of the HotBird 6 satellite . In March 2011, the radio frequency chain was modified to be able to receive the 20.2‐GHz ASTRA 3B beacon . From mid‐2013 to end of 2014, ONERA and CNES deployed 4 other Ka‐band beacon receivers in the south of France to assess the performances of site diversity techniques .…”

Small and large scale site diversity experiment at Ka‐band in the south of France

“…The experimental set‐up (still operational) in Toulouse is the following : an indoor beacon receiver designed by ONERA, a profiling Radiometrics TP‐WVP 3000 radiometer (ONERA), a tipping bucket rain gauge (ONERA). …”

“…The dynamic range is around 37 dB using the ASTRA 3B beacon signal. For a more detailed description of the equipment, the reader may refer to .…”