Diversity gain for rain attenuation over Earth-space path at a tropical location

The present study proposes a technique by which the diversity gain can be estimated for a site utilizing the propagation data obtained at a single station. The technique is crucial in estimating diversity parameters in the absence of multi-station data. The rain decay parameter, as defined in the Simple Attenuation Model (SAM), is used to derive the rain rate and consequently rain attenuation at different distances from the single receiving site. The tropical location has been found to experience a wide variability of rain features during different periods of the year causing strong seasonal variations in the diversity gain. A comparison of the diversity gain obtained from the present propagation data and the ITU-R model indicates the necessity of modifying the model parameters of the ITU-R model. The modified model incorporates the seasonal variation and exhibits better prediction capability than the ITU-R model as related to the tropical location. (C) 2015 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.