Analysis and applications of short-distance site diversity techniques for 20/30 GHz communication links

This paper considers the application of short-distance site diversity to Earth-space communication links affected by rain attenuation at Ka-band. For the range of distances of interest, 25 km or less, the attenuations in the diversity paths are statistically dependent. The presented approach adopts the EXCELL model for meteorological characterization. Both down- and up-link site diversity have been studied with two stations. Three different diversity strategies (signal selection, site switching and signal combining) have been analyzed in case of down-link diversity. For up-link diversity, we considered the site switching technique. We show that short-distance site diversity provides a significant advantage to meet availability requirements in data relay satellite (DRS) links