Statistical modeling and simulation of mobile satellite propagation

Land mobile satellite systems that are currently being designed for implementation in the next decade will need to operate in the presence of propagation effects such as vegetative shadowing and multipath that will cause signal fading. This paper discusses the statistical modeling and simulation of the land mobile satellite fading environment. Simple models are developed to approximate the complex analytical expressions for the fade distributions. The Average Path Model, which relates the physical parameters of the vegetation along the path to the propagation model parameters, is verified and shown as a useful model for estimating the propagation parameters. Discrepancies between the VT Propagation Simulator and the analytical models are resolved and results comparing secondary fading statistics from the simulator to measured data are given. Results of a study using the propagation simulator to simulate spatial diversity to combat vegetative fading are given.