Performance Evaluation of High-Frequency Mobile Satellite Communications

Abstract

Communication satellites have a much longer propagation delay than terrestrial communication networks such as cellular or WiFi. In addition, as the carrier frequency moves up, mobile satellite communications show worse performances than the conventional fixed satellite communications. The mobile satellite service (MSS) has not been actively pursued with long latency at high-frequency bands for future applications. In this paper, the adverse impact of long propagation delay in the conventional satellite system is investigated with various user mobility and Doppler-shifted carrier frequency. The satellite network is modeled as a basic delayed feedback channel system and the communication performance is analyzed under delayed channel state information (CSI) for assessing the system feasibility in mobile conditions. The results of performance analysis are provided at high-frequency bands with high-speed user movement, specifically on the outage probability and the channel capacity exploiting three types of channel models: conventional land mobile satellite (LMS) channel models of E. Lutz and C. Loo, and Nakagami fading model. In the circumstance with various user speeds, system performances are evaluated with different propagation delays in the LMS channel models and for line-of-sight (LOS) components in the Nakagami fading. In addition, the conventional models are compared depending on different altitudes for geostationary orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, as well as high-altitude platforms (HAP).