Markovian Properties of the Q-band Satellite Channel with Rain Attenuation

The Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment aboard of the Alphasat satellite serves to investigate the satellite channel impairments in Ka and Q bands. The experiment is coordinated by the European Space Agency in the framework of ARTES 8 Telecom programme. Among other European experimenters, Budapest University of Technology also built and operates a beacon receiver station in Budapest for channel measurement purposes. The time series of received power collected by the system so far has enough length to derive several statements about the rain attenuation process of the satellite channel. In this paper the Q-band radio channel of the Alphasat satellite is studied as a Markov chain and the homogeneity and order of the process are thoroughly investigated. Based on the literature the required mathematical methods for measurement data preparation and discretization are also summarized, followed by different statistical test. Markov chains are often applied in channel modelling and prediction purposes, while the model structure and parameterization are usually based on real measurements. The statements of this paper are based on our long-term propagation measurements: a Q-band beacon signal of the Alphasat satellite. By studying different Markov properties may help for system engineers to select a suitable model structure for the millimetre band satellite propagation channel.