Fade/non-fade duration characteristics and a model for land mobile satellite communications channels

Propagation characteristics of land mobile satellite communications channels have been studied actively. It is important to investigate the statistical characteristics of fade and nonfade durations as well as those of the fade depth for the design of practical communications systems. Probability density distributions of fade and nonfade durations and a new simulation model are described, based on data measured in Japan. It is shown that the statistical characteristics of fade and nonfade durations of the measured propagation data can be approximated very well with the sums of two log-normal functions. Man-made structures and artificial environments affect the fade and nonfade statistics, especially in freeways and urban areas. It is concluded that the proposed model can more adequately describe the fade and nonfade statistics than models proposed previously.>