Analysis of Link Lifetime With Auto-Correlated Shadowing in High-Speed Railway Networks

In high-speed railway (HSR) networks, wireless link connection is fragile because of fast train speed and severe fading environment. Link lifetime is an important metric for many safety and non-safety applications that require a radio connection to be maintained for an entire communication session. An analytical modeling structure is proposed for estimating the probability density function (PDF) of link lifetime under auto-correlated shadow fading environment in HSR networks. A discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC) based model is proposed to model both pathloss and auto-correlated shadowing components into a transition process. Based on the proposed DTMC model, the PDF of the link lifetime between a communication pair can then be more accurately derived. Performance of the model is verified by a measurement campaign conducted along a part of the Zhengzhou-Xi'an HSR networks in China.