The Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment: Measurement campaign at the Italian ground stations

Abstract

Summary Terabit capacity and very high data rates are required for the near‐future broadband satellite communication systems, mainly for multimedia services. The increased capacity can be obtained by using the larger bandwidth available at higher frequency bands, like Ka and Q/V. However, severe detrimental atmospheric effects impair radio waves at these bands, which require the extensive use of fade mitigation techniques, such as link power control, site diversity, or on‐board adaptive power allocation. The Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment was designed and supported by the Italian Space Agency, and implemented by the European Space Agency, to better characterize the atmospheric propagation channel at Ka band and Q band, to support the design of future satellite systems. In Italy, 3 ground stations have been installed and are acquiring the Alphasat beacon signals: the 2 ASI main ground stations in Tito Scalo (Southern Italy) and Spino d'Adda (Northern Italy) and the La Sapienza‐FUB station in Roma (Central Italy). The 3 stations cover quite distant locations in Italy, with different climatic characteristics. This paper describes the main features of the experimental setup in the above stations and presents some examples of measurements and results.

Two-Leg Deep-Space Relay Architectures: Performance, Challenges, and Perspectives

“…Using this value, it is possible to quantify the loss by employing, for example, (16) or (17) model. Adopting a Gaussian beam model, for given θ max we compute the maximum pointing loss per antenna as L pnt,max = e −Gθ 2 max (18) and we use it for link analysis.…”

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“…In the present paper, our aim is to estimate, globally, the tropospheric attenuation that can be expected in the GeoSurf links at 39.6 GHz-a frequency experimented with the satellites Italsat [2,3] and Alphasat [4,5]-due to clear-sky (water vapor, oxygen, and clouds) and to rain, in terms of the probability of annually exceeding a given fade level. For link budgets, this fade level is to be considered as the largest power/coding margin that must be available before link outage.…”

“…Let us consider Spino d'Adda. In the countryside of this town, there is a small space station of Politecnico di Milano where, since the 1970s, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) first, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) later, with the experts of Politecnico di Milano, have conducted radio propagation and telecommunication experiments at Ku and Ka frequency bands, with the satellites SIRIO [6], ITALSAT [7], and currently Alphasat, within the framework of the Aldo Paraboni experiment [4,5].…”

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