Analysis of LEO, MEO, and GEO Global Mobile Satellite Systems in the Presence of Interference and Fading Fr wesco Vatalaro, Senior Member, IEEE, Giovanni Emanuele Corazza, Member, IEEE, Carlo Caini, Member, TEEE, and Carlo Ferrarelli Absract— Several multistellite and moltispot systems have bncen recently proposed for provision of mobile and personal services with glabal coverage adopting GEO or non-GEO te, MEO, LEO) satelite constellations, The paper addresses ani depth analysis ofthese constellations, evaluating both geometrical performance measures and cochannel Interference levels caused by extensive frequency reuse. The geometrical analsis yields the Satsties for coverage, frequency of satelite hand-overs, and ink lbsence periods The interference analysis is baed on a general model valld for all acess techniques, which is here applied 10 the case of FDMA. The outage probability as a function of the ‘specication on carier-to-intererence power rato evaluated forfour selected constellations. Several techniques are introduced for Interference reduction im non-GEO systems, ia which the satales coverage areas may intersect: spot turn, ntrarbital plane frequency division, and interorbital plane frequency divi Son. The effet of Rice fading have abo been analyzed by means ‘of an analyte approximated method. The overall analysis allows 1 fale comparison between LEO, MEO, and GEO constellations. 1. Ivrropuction EVERAL satellite systems have been recently proposed for provision of mobile and personal services, adopt ing geostationary or nongeostatonary orbits [1}-[3} 16-19) These systems aim at global coverage services # goal that can only be achieved by launching a constellation of satellites ‘The identification of the optimum satellite constellation relies fon the analysis of @ number of mutually linked factors, such as: type of services); maximum transmission delay, minimum elevation angle; service quality and availability specifications; extent and distribution of the expected user population; number and class of satellites: type of mobile terminal; etc. Comparison of different alternatives is difficult, ‘due to the complex interaction between these elements “The paper concentrates on an in-lpth analysis of nongeo- stationary constellation characteristics, referencing the results to the wellknown geostationary alternative. Circular low- Manus tv January 15, 19% vant May 25, 1 This wok setae within he fameweek 9 te "Proget Flrato Telecom ‘eae of CNR Vaan © E, Corman C eral ste with he Dipatimeso IngsaniaEeronice,Unvesn iRoma “Tors Rom ly ECan wre Drea onc. Ineratene Semitic, ‘nent Blogs, Blog ly TEEE Log Numer 07a aliude earth orbits (LEO) and mediumeattiude earth orbits (MEO) are considered. A preliminary analysis is catied out fon the basis of geometrical considerations alone, leading «© the evaluation of the percentage of Earth surface covered by the constellation, the statistics of the frequency of hand- fover between saelites, and of link absence petiods, This analysis produces some very interesting information, but is not sufficient for predicting the quality of service that can be provided by the system. In fact, next generation satelite ‘obi systems will need an extremely high value of spectrum clficieney both in the case of competition and in that of integration with errestral cellular systems. Presently, the trend is evident toward multspot systems with increasing values for the frequency reuse factor. If the service region is covered wih many relatively small spots, the satelite system vitally becomes a cellular system, Therefore, an analysis of cochannel ierference plays a fundamental role in the design of these systems, ‘The interference scenario in a mobile satellite system is diferent from that of its terestrial counterpart due to the presence of the on-board antenna that acts as a spatial ler, Cochannel interference is a consequence of the presence of sidelobes in the on-board antenna radiation diagram, which implies nonideal angular selectivity ofthe spotbeams. In order to allow a fair comparison of constellations that operate at diferent orbital altitudes and with differen minimum elevation angles, an empirical mode! has been developed to synthesize the spot beam gains as a function ofthe above parameters and ‘of the angle of incidence on the Earth surface. Given the multispot antenna radiation diagram, we introduce 4 general model forthe evaluation ofthe carier-to-inerference Dower ratio C/2, which ean be applied to all access techniques. ‘The model is then applied to the case of frequency division multiple secess (FDMA). A. static assignment of frequency cannels per spot is assumed, so that cochannel spots can be identified a priori. However, due to the constellation dynamics, the relative postion of the cochannel spots in ieren satellites changes overtime, so that C/ will always. be considered a a statistical quantity. On some occasions (es pecially when satellites are near interorbital plane crossings) ochannel spot footprints intersect on the ground: in these cases, the interference level is always unacceptable, unless Some countermeasures aze taken. In the study, we introduceseveral techniques tha ean be used to avoid or minimize the ‘currence ofthese situations: spot turno;intaorital plane Frequency division; and interorbital plane frequency division Al the results in the paper are reported forfour prototypical constellations: LEO with polar erbits, LEO with inclined orbits, MEO, and GEO. Since mobile communication channels always suffer from ‘onideal propagation conditions, the interference analysis must also be performed in the presence of fading. However, an ‘aceurate fading analysis is hardly feasible for these systems, since the mutually interfering users are normally located in completely diferent environments. Also, and possibly more important, for nongeostationary satelite the elevation an- ale changes continuously overtime, so that the propagation characteristics ate nonstationary. In the paper, we carry out 8 simplified analysis assuming Rice fading statistics for all Propagation channels, ‘The paper is structured as follows. Section II contains the definitions for the orbital characteristics and geometrical performance measures of interest. It also presents a novell diseretization algorithm for the Earth surface that has been uilized in our software simulation package. The orbital pa rameters of the selected constellations are listed, and the preliminary geometrical analysis is performed. Section I contains the general model for interference analysis and its ap plication to FDMA. Four techniques for interference reduction ae presented, and ther effect on both C/T and on frequency reuse is put into evidence. The presence of Rice fading on both the wanted mobile and the interferers is considered in Section IV. The analysis scarred out by means of an analytic approximated method. Finally our conclusions are drawn in Section V. 1, Oprrs AND SaTeLLirE ConsTELLaTioNs: Acconting to the satelite altitude, H, circular orits can be clasiied as: low-aliude earth’ obits, having 500 < +H. < 2000 km; medium-altiude earth orbits, having 5000 < HH < 20000 km; the geostationary orbit (GEO) having H = 35800 km. The choice of Hf is @ fundamental driver of the constellation size, V,. Fig. 1 shows a lower bound on the number of satellites needed to provide global Earth coverage (polar regions excluded) a8 a function of Hf and with the minimum elevation angle, a, as a parameter, simply obtained by dividing the service area by the coverage area of 8 single satellite. Fig. 1 shows that worldwide coverage with high elevation angles (a >) 70° is impractical. ‘The circular LEO category includes polar, equatorial, and inclined orbits. The main advantages of a LEO with respect to the GEO and MEO are the reduced free space attenuation, the sal propagation delay, and the reduced cost of in-orbit injection per satellite. To achieve worldwide coverage with LEO's, several tens of satellites are necessary, and 10 avoid an unreasonable size of the constellation, the elevation angle must be sacrificed (av > 10°, or 50), see Fig. 1, However, a large constellation allows a more extensive frequency reuse. "MEO constellations look for a compromise between LEO's and the GEO. They need a limited number of stelites 10 10 108 10 10 10 itl stede H Gm) 10 Fig. Loner hound te comsliton sve fr gl conemgs (pla Tetons excused} wih mismo vito ani prance (10, oF $o)—see Fig. I-10 achieve worldwide coverage with imermediate values of elevation angle (cr > 20°, or so). Also, the values of free space attenuation and of propagation delay are obviously intermediate. In particular, the reduced propagation delay with respect to the GEO allows a double hop via satellite for mobile-o-mobile connections in accordance with CCITT Recommendation G.114 ‘Analysis of mobile systems based on LEO, MEO, and GEO constellations must take into account the performance mea- sures that are important to assess telecommunications service «quality, some of which depend on geometrical considerations alone. They are coverage areas, hand-over times, and fink absence times. Due tothe mobility ofthe satelites (except for GEO), these geomettical parameters are experienced by the user a8 statistical quantities. In the following, we will evaluate all the performance measures as a function of time by means of a simulation procedure and, suc A. Geometrical Performance Measures ‘The instantaneous coverage achieved by « constellation, C(t; a) can be defined as the Weighted fractional area of the Ean surface $ covered with an elevation angle greater than all 21: @, PPP BOT gel PP c(t o where P isa point over S: (0; 4, P) = 1 if P is covered at time ¢ at least with angle a, and (5 P) the weight function w(P).0 < w(P) <1, is ti to the system service area and, possibly, to the expected traffic demand, In all subsequent analyses, we will assume w(P) = 0 above +70° lat. and below 70° lat, and u(P) = 1 elsewhereEvaluating C(t; a) for different valves of the elevation angle and exchanging time with probability, a cumulative distribution function fore” can be obtained. This analysis can be used to verify if the selected constellation can achieve lobal coverage and also to identify what percentage of the Earth is covered with an elevation angle greater than 3 specified threshold. Due to the nongeostationarty of LEO's and MEO, the satelite seen with the highest elevation angle from an Earth location changes over time. Therefore, the network man- agement system must adopt a suitable strategy for handing ‘over the communication from one satelite 10 another. In ‘general, the hand-over strategy depends on many factors and ‘ean be radiolink driven oF network driven (10). For analysis purposes, the simplest criterion ¢herewithin followed) is 10 consider asthe serving satelite the one seen under the greatest elevation angle and to keep with that satelite until it falls below the nominal elevation angle. At that instant, a hand. lover occurs toward the available satellite seen under the highest elevation angle. The hand-over analysis yields the firs, Statistical moments of the time interval between handover, ‘Tyo. with results weighted through the function oP). ‘In gencral, hand-overs can occur not only between satellites, ‘but also between spots of a multibeam satellite. Spot hand- ‘overs can be neglected when the multspot satellite antenna: (1) is ofthe soflux design, with asymmetric mainlobes, with largest angular dimension along the motion direction [7]; and (2) is provided with circularly symmetric steering spot beams [B}. In the following, we neglect spot hand-overs. Spot hand: lovers were considered in (4) ‘While searching forall satellites in visibility from a certain arth location at atime instant ¢, its possible that none ofthe satellites be above the minimum required elevation angle. In {his case, the lnk is considered absent, and the abservation of the absence time intervals around the Earth [possibly weighted through sn(P)] leads to an estimate of the service availability in clearsky for a given constellation, which is a component fof the overall system availability. The link absence analysis, yields the first statistical moments of the link absence periods, Tap B. Software Simulation of Some Constellations ‘The multisselite systems analysis has been performed by means of a purposely developed software simulation package. ‘The package contains a kemel that simulates the periodic constellation motion around the Earth, whose surface is substi> tuted with a spherical grid of points. Acconding to the method presented in [5]. the points ean be locted atthe intersection ‘of parallel and meridian planes all aken with uniform angular distance. By doing so, the grid points density increases sharply toward the poles. The problem of nonuniform distibution of points was solved a posterior’ in {5} by means ofa sinusoidal ‘weighting function, To reduce the total number of points in the grid forthe same degree of accuracy, we prefer a different strategy, pursuing an a prior! uniform grid of points on the sphere. Given the number of points on the equator. Nig (# multiple of 4), the number of parallel planes is taken as Neql2I (poles excluded). The angular distance between these planes is therefore 2/Neg. The number of points on the ith parallel (6 = Iyo>>y Noq/2~ 1) is taken as Ni) = [Neqsin(W4)] ® where U, = 2ri/Noy and [-] indicates the nearest integer. ‘The total number of points in the rid results in pa Nor =2+Nag+? 5 (Neqsin Wl @ All the geometrical performance measures are evaluated for every instant on each grid point and then averaged over the complete grid, weighted through w(P). Subsequently, time average over the constellation period takes place. In the study, the analysis is performed for various constellations, all designed to provide global Earth coverage, as follows, ‘+ Constellation #1 (LEOL): Having N, = 66 satellites lo. cated at H = 780 km on six quasipolar orbital planes (1 saelites per orbit, with inclination over the equatorial plane i = 86", and = 15° + Constellation #2 (LEO): Having Ny = 48 located at = 1389 km on eight orbital planes (six satellites per orbit), with 1 = $2°, and or = 15° + Constellation #3 (MEO): Having N, = 12 located at H. = 10600 km on three orbital planes (four sa per orbit), with # = 55%, and a = 22° + Constellation #4 (GEO): Having N, = 4, and a= 18° ‘The above LEOI, LEO2, and MEO constellation characte. istics are extracted from well-known system proposils (ie “Iridium” [6], "Globalstar" [7], “Odyssey” [8]. However, in this paper, we do not make any’ reference to ether character istics ofthese proposed systems. “The results ofthe coverage analysis for the above-mentioned. systems are reported in Fig. 2 Itshows that coverage capily decreases as we increase the elevation angle. For relatively high values of a coverage is worse for LEO constellations, ‘which can therefore he expected to be more affected by Tink blockage in the presence of obstacles. Tables I and TL Contin the results ofthe hand-over and link absence analyses, respectively. Generally speaking, the time between hand-overs i smaller for constellations with lower IZ, due 10 the higher speed of the saelites, The statistics on link absence times should be considered very carefully by the system operator, since they directly affect the quality of the offered service. LIL, INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS ‘The software simulation package can be exploited to per form interference analyses, the results of which are a fun damental part in the Tink budget of these global systems with large served traffic. In this section, we first introduce an ‘on-board antenna model. Then we describe @ general model (alid forall multiple access techniques) for the evaluation of the signalto-inerference power mtio in a multsatelite fand multispot system adopting frequency reuse (the model ‘will be further refined in Section TV to include the presence100 Minimum Coverage () a er i © 10 2 30 40 50 60 7 80 90 (degrees) Fig. 2. Minimum coverage for he skid onlin fnton of ‘teria levion ale “Toe erwrns axons Stans Comssaion] ve | Mn co] Moe | er wor | ama | tos sr [imo meo | sos | sea [ours [aes TABLE axe Ansence Ta Sane. ‘Gowen vg Ty) (0 | Ming] ae cg | eg usr | oa aa uso [on a re a 00 os wo [ao [se [swe us ‘of nonselective fading). Finally, we apply the model to the panicular case ‘of FDMA. ‘A. Mulispot Antenna Modeling As before, N indicates the sumber of saelites in the constellation, while» is the number of cells per satelite A specified cell in the area of serve is identified through the couple (j, Kaj = Less-,Noyk = I= .Nq. Bach cel is covered by the mainlobe ofa spotbeam whose gsi, (8) is related to the normalized far-field radiation patter, F,(@), by G40) ) o where Gyyy is the maximum gain of the jth spot. The spotbeams may have different radiation palters to compensate i. 3. Spo team aliation diagram and ma for T= 208 an p= 2 forte different angles of incidence and free space losses. The radiation patterns have been modeled through suitable masks 11) enveloping the maxima of the generic tapered-aperture antenna radiation pattern : 4) = ot na=7) BO) = Fu) = ee (22 pay ‘where: w= nay; sn 8/2: Ju) isthe Bessel funetion of the first kind and order 7’ is the aperture edge taper: da, i the eifective aperture diameter ofthe th spot isthe wavelength ‘As an example, F(u) and the corresponding, mask is drawn in Fig. 3 for T= 20 dB and p = 2. For the case N- = 19, an empirical model has been derived 10 synthesize the effec tive aperture diameters d; that give good multispot antenna, ootprints for a wide range of orbital alstudes and minimum elevation angles. Tis model is useful fora fair comparison of systems with diferent constellation characteristics. Letting dd be the effective aperture diameter for the spot covering the subsatelite point, ds can be evaluated as oof +(24) ] ee oe ee oe minimom value for 1). = Ly---yNot h = 005: € is an ‘empirical function of Hf (km) and o (degrees) tt © da €= EH, a) = 3.39 ~ 0.0385ar ~ 0.748 log, (H/ Ho) erm ‘with Hy = 1000 km. As an example, in Fig. 4 the resulting antenna footprint is ploted for the MEO case. The range of validity of this empirical model is 500 km < H-< 20000) km, 10° < ar < 50°. This antenna model has been used in all subsequent analyses.Fg 4. Mist enone ott fr 8 elie ne MED contin ‘Ako soe is sublvson io tasers wih AT = 1B. Carrier to-Interference Power Ratio and Outage Probability Mobile users in the jth cell in the area of coverage of the Ath satelite are numbered from 1 t0 Ny, $0 that fay user oF its communication channel may be’ identified ‘through a unigue set of indices (i,j, 8), # = Teoe+ Nas Lenses [N, Let the wanted mobile be assigned the set (m,n, ). The angles of interest in the model ‘description ae Shown in Fig. 5. ju is the angle under which user (4, j,k) is seen from the serving satelite with respect to the boresight of the mainlobe covering the cell containing the wanted mobile, while a,j isthe elevation angle under which user (i,j, ) sees the serving satelite. The same definitions apply forthe wanted mobile replacing (1,3, E) with (m,n, p) Note that, in genera, these angles are time-varying. Let us ceonsider the case of @ retum link, from the wanted mobile to the fixed Barth station (FES), Given a certain positon of the satellite constellation at a certain instant, denove as V the Set of inerering mobiles for which aije > ap (e829 = 5°). The signal-o-imerference power ratio inthe up-ink can bee writen as (12) c. Panytng(Qrnng]Gn (Beng) 7 TO DED Een tana alipneapn apn) Ga (Bipa) wabey where + 5} 8 the atenation in the path from wser (i,j 8) «© (he serving sai: + ejala) isthe product of ransmited power and antenna tsin i the divetion «for mobile terminal (3, + Si is the orthogonality facto: je = 0 means that tanoes(,j.K) and (m,n. ) ate pefetly onhogonal {oot interfering), while for < ye © 1 hese channels are interfering: and hoe i the astivily factor: the mean pesod of ime in hich channel (jb i ative Por os Fi 5. Anges finer fo wa and ner aie eins ‘The abovespecified model can be used to evaluate the signaltosnerterence power raio in the case of FDMA, TDMA, or CDMA depending on the value assumed by ‘yy. For example, i the case of an FDMA technique, 24 Will be mll for al potently interfering users except for the ones reusing the same frequency channel, for which ‘ye = 1 Optionally, adjacent channel interference on the {ine ny p) channel canbe included by assianing iu # 0 (he sctual’ value depending. upon channel spacing, modulation, land fering techniques) 10 the channels on the 10 sides. When TDMA is the chosen aceess scheme, 72 will be different from zero only for the channels reusing the same (and frequency) sot, for which 7x = 1. Further, time firing effects can be included by asigaing ye #0 the cual value depending upon syachronization erors and time fuards) tothe channels preceding and following (m, m7). Finally, inthe case of CDMA, wil be different from ‘zero (but very smal) for every chine thats using the same frequency band, The actual value fori depends upon the adopted cove faily and on the degree of synchronization imposed between user In this study, itis assumed chat the downlink 10 FES does not introduce further interference contributions. which js resonable considering thatthe FES tacking antenna must have a very high directivity, so that ony the serving satelite is seen. Also, only the return link is considered, which has teen shown to be the worst case fink [1 Given multiple access technique and a digital modulation sme, specification forthe minimum carer o-ineference power ai, (C/I) an be identified. We define the outage Probab. Pays 88 the probability of falling to achieve the {<(7),4} [As for the case of the geometrical performance measures, the instantaneous C/ has been evaluated by means of time-domain simulation of the consellaion motion over the Aiseretized Earth, andthe statistical characterization has been ‘obtained exchanging time with probability oww we ee 10" 3 é 10? 10? 0 5 1 1s 0 2 30 (CA, (0B) Fp. 6._Ouape potty a fonction of sped C/ wits ile nce edn techn . Evaluation of Owage Probability for FDMA For comparison purposes, suppose FDMA is the selected access technique for all of the constellations considered in the study. In order to efficiently reuse the avilable frequency spectrum, for each satelite, the N cells are panitioned into M clusters with I. cells each, Therefore, the available frequency band is divided into Z subsets, and each subset is reused in corresponding cells of different clusters, Fig. 4 shows the case M = L = 7. These values for M and L will be retained through all subsequent analyses, Let W be the subset of V containing the users that see the serving satelite with an angle greater than ap and reuse the same frequency channel as (myn, p). For a worst case analysis, assume jun = 1 for (i,j, 8) € W. Finally, let all the mobile terminals be twansmilting the same power (no power control) and have constant gain antennas across the Feld of view, Under these assumptions, (8) reduces to e CAC 40) ‘Based on (10), an analysis of the selected constellations has been carried out, obtaining the mean outage probability ‘over the discretized world (polar regions excluded) and over the consellation period as a function of the specification (C/Drn- In general, for LEO's and MEO's due to the inter- Sectng trajectories ofthe satellites on different orbital planes, if no countermeasures are.taken with respect t0 cochannel imerference, the outage probabilities are unacceptably high, as shown in Fig. 6: even for very low (C/T)ra values such 8 5 dB, the outage probability #6 above 10%. (City, 2B) Fg. 7. Ouage pbubty asa onton of spc C/T wh dierent Inference retina telaigue for the LEO! colin Several imerference reduction methods have been consid ceed in the study, and their effect has been analyzed for the diferent constellations A) Spot Turnoff: According o this technique, whenever two spots overlap exceedingly one of the «Wo spots is tumed off. In our approach, the measure for overlapping is based on the distance on the Earth surface betwcen the intersections of the spots boresight 2B) Intraorbital Plane Frequency Division: According to this technique, satellites on the same orbital plane are assigned different frequency subsets up to a specified modulo R. For ‘example, in the case of R= 2, there are two subsets, each fone reused every other satellite. It is evident that Jt should be preferably chosen to be a divisor of the total number of satellites on an orbital plane. (C)Interorbital Plane Frequency Division: According to this technique, the available frequency spectrum is subdivided into a many subsets as the number of orbital planes, so that satellites on different orbital planes are nonintrfering D) Spot Turnoff and Inraorbital Frequency Division: This technique follows simply from the simultaneous ase of tech- niques and B. All these techniques bring some reduction in the reuse of the available frequency spectrum. Therefor, the improvement in outage probability must be gauged against the reduction in spectrum efficiency. Figs. 7-9 contain the results of the analysis forthe LEOL, LEO2, and MEO systems, respectively, and for the different techniques, while Table IL shows the number of times the frequency spectrum is reused core- spondingly. In all cases, technique C brings the greatest reduction in outage probability, as it produces an almost static imerference situation asin the GEO case. On the other hand,10° 10" Outage Proatiliy 10? 10° 10" o 5 wo ss m 3 (CM) gy (8) Fe. Outage probaly ax fenton of spsciedC/ with eran Inreece rl ecu fete E02 eonselsion it is also the one that uses the spectrum less efficiently nevertheless, if the number of orbital planes is small (as in the MEO cise) the efficiency reduction could be tolerable, ‘Technique B is generally inferior with respect w technique |, at least for the interesting range of outage probabilities (below 10-1). Technique A is also the one that ensures the ‘maximum spectrum efficiency, Technique D obviously yields lower outage probabilities than A or B, with a small reduction in frequency reuse with respect to B. IV, Enrects oF RICE FADING In the previous section, the interference analysis has been carried out neglecting fading effects. Consideration of fading [Phenomena i dillicult for mobile satellite systems, since each user is normally located in a completely different environ- ment from the others: the problem of identifying 8 si statistical model able to reproduce the actual situation has been addressed in [13]. Morcover, since the elevation angles change continuously overtime (very quickly in the LEO case), the channel is nonstationary in nature, even if the users are static. In this section, an approximate evaluation of the system ‘outage probability in a continental region in the presence of fading is caried out, under the simplifying assumptions that all vsers are located in similar environments and experience ronselectve fading due to diffuse multipath, the later having constant power relative to the ditest component. This is equivalent to assuming Rice distribution for the transfer function envelope of the propagation medium. In this ease, (10) can be easly modified to obtain the carier-to-inerference (My 8) Fis. 9 Ovage probsbiliy a fuactn of seifed C/T wih deen Incetcne mses technique othe MED rostlaion. aa m requ RSE on Deny etensne Rei THORNS sesogo) es, uo | ae [| aw [ee ratio in the presence of fading, C/ as follows % Prost” ay Ty Lea mew Pinloe In (11), C. {Zia} are deterministic, while each random vari able (ev. p, Being the square of a Rice rv. i deseribed by 3 noncentral x? distribution with two degrees of freedom {14}. ‘The probability density function of p can be expressed as Sole) = Keke (2K yp), p20 (12) where [o(x) isthe zero-order modified Bessel function of the first kind, and isthe Rice factor, ic. the ratio of the power in the direct signal component to the power in the diffuse signal component. The cumulative distribution funetion (c.4f.) of p is (0) =1- QW2K, VIR) p20) ‘where Q(z w) is the Marcum Q-funeton (14). Finally, the mean value of p is given by Kei p= «iOwage Probability with Inerference and Rice Fading In order to evaluate the outage probability, Peas, we need to determine the eaif. of C/T as expressed by (11). I is worth noting that an exact analytical approach can be adopted for the total interference power, 1, under the assumption that all the imerferers have equal Zijr and Rice factor K [11] In this case, Zy isan rv, having a noncentral x? distribution ‘with 2Niy degrees of freedom, where Ni isthe cardinality of Ws @ consequence, itis simple to numerically evaluate the calf. of C/T. This approach was adopted in [11] fora worst case interference analysis of an HEO (highly eliptical orbit) system. However, the same approach cannot be used for [LEO and MEO systems, in which the interferers ate generally characterized by very different values of free space received powers. The problem canbe solved by means of an accurate analytic ‘pproximated method introduced in 15} and [16]. The method is based on the observation that, when anv, Zs the ratio of| ‘wo nonnegative random varabies, ie, Z = CIs. the caf of Z, Fz(2), can be approximated 2s Fa(Z) © Fe, EUN12) as) where Foy(Cy) is the edt. of Cy and E [] stands for SMatisticel average. The approximation (1) holds provided that a9) In this case, knowledge of the mean value of the total imterference I is sufficient for an accurate estimation of outage probability as defined by (9). Note that Fz(Z) is approximated by the ef. of a noncental x? distribution with 2 degrees of freedom, whichis known analytically [14]. Ttean bbe easly demonstrated that, when all the random variables hhave equal Rice factors, it holds si, >, Fa) ay ice, the outage probability depends on the Rice factor and on G/ in the absence of fading, regardless of how the single je contribute t 1, ‘The applicability of the method in this study. must be vetfied by checking tha the variance ratio #2, /a?, is much greater than one for the cases of interest. To this end, we have considered about 100 different (C. {Tuya}, (i. &) © W) patterns representative of different constellation positions and mobile terminals locations. For every pattern, both the , fa}, ratio (with K = 5 dB) and the C/T were evaluated ‘The 100 pairs obtained for the LEO2 constellation are reported in Fig. 10, which shows that condition (16) holds most of the times. To further verify the goodness of the approximation, we have then compared the analytical estimate of outage probability for (C/}rx = 10 dB as given by (17) to the results of a Monte Carlo simulation, The results are shown in the same Fig. 10, and the agreement is excellent even for moderate values of 02. fo}. The validity ofthe method has been checked also forthe other constellations and for different AK ‘alues. We finally note that the method is applicable to Uitferent nonselective fading models, 0 wt w 7 = 0 wt é g § 1° 5 = é $0 wg g 3 3 wo 2 é 30? we é go ot w © 5 10 15 20 2% 30 35 40 cc) i 10, Won of ie nae spine mei an 72, [0}, teres) and comparion ef competed (comtat W) thd simlted (diamonds) ouage probabil. ‘The method has been applied to the LEO? (Fig, 11) and MEO (Fig. 12) constellations for thee different values of the Rice factor A (0 dB, 5 dB, 10 dB). The analysis has been carried out for Furopean coverage. The reported values ofthe ‘outage probability ae the mean values over space and time, Figs. 11(@) and 12(a) refer to interference reduction technique A (spot turnoff). while Figs. 11) and 12(a refer to technique CC (inteorbital plane feequency division). As can be seen, the presence of fading brings a considerable increase in outage probability only when Pyyy experienced in the absence of fading is low, which is, however, the area of interest. V. Concrusions ‘On the bass of the results obtained above, we can draw the following main conclusions. 1) LEO constellations need lager N, to achieve global coverage, and most of the area of service is covered with ‘small elevation angles (see Fig 2). This is counterbalanced by ‘much smaller propagation delay and free space attenuation, which is, however, much more variable within the satelite coverage area. The higher speed of LEO satellites implies not only larger Doppler effects, but also much lower time intervals between hand-overs. Having fixed the number of spots per satelite, V., LEO constellations achieve much higher valves of frequeney reuse, and therefore of system capacity. 2) For a MEO constellation, the problems caused by the ‘constellation dynamics are mitigated with respect to the LEO ‘ase, and the same is true from the point of view of fee space attenuation and delay with respect to the GEO case, However, ‘one open question isthe technological feasibility of muleispot antennas with very large numbers of spotbeams (one hundred ‘oF more), which are needed to approach the capacity typical (of LEO systems.we T T 1 Ae T T T fe eee Zot ge! 2 i 2 i © 10 ope | 107 ’ L L L 10? L L L aS s i 1s 2 0 $ 10 15 20 (Cy ) a0 T T T 10° T T T otadig = =! j i . 2 Lies 8 gs 10” 10” (ener nena ee (iy (Cig) ® ra 11 Og tty ne peo faig whe ce aera i Ota ty i he es of aig wth eK te A france) ars neton of apsited Cl forte LEO® cmon ove rope iterewace ecm tecnico tot) ere ‘esac tego Cera ae quem) 90 3) The GEO alternative rid the system operator of satelite hand-overs, Doppler effect due 1o satellite motion, large con stellation size, and interference reduction methods. However, the large time delay prevents the double hop via satellite; the large fee space at rakes it dificult operate with yorum aslo of sesied C7 fr he MED conten oer Ev: frente odutonectmigae A tro () neers Fotos tong € ner! plane een in). portable terminal; high latitudes are always covered with low elevation angles '4) IF FDMA is the solected access technique for & non ‘geostationary system, some countermeasures are needed in ‘order to reduce the eachannel interference contributions. Themost effective technique is the frequency division beween orbital planes, which, however, drastically reduces the fre ‘quency reuse, unless the numberof orbital planes is small. An alternative is the spot turnoff technique, which is a tentative {o satisfy the contrasting objectives of high C/I and high spectrum efficiency, 5) An approximate evaluation of the presence of fading fon the propagation channels in the FDMA case shows considerable increase in outage probability. More accurate ‘modeling should take into account the nonstationary nature ofthis propagation channel, REFERENCES {1 MITRE 0 mbit sopmain ay: fans B84 Comma Sto Ne 12) Oil parte We i Ra, Low eat oat tite ye x cmon” ele Conte ace SO 00) Pataloe aM Co “Aric a eng se sole popes comm fl ot (51 GCE Corzs ind F Waar. arp fw and medi at tyes fest fa ne Pre ein an Comma Cua Preeang EEE TCHS Wace re ra eA mess awoken wh Sent ice i Sit as Coma 20 pA TL LSitew ce tcl sonmancn mw pre the Sa Canon, Cn ie aaa Soyo £5 Wien, Am Sama a BR “OLOBALSTAR Moh eames sh Ju em Be ANSP 18 © Sine, Ofpey pra omecon asst in foc St Mabie ke Cot MSC HS fsa CA ha (ia ooh ntsc: Patan nl? Rai MAOSS-6: § we sine pa qh sie spat pre soc ite: Fact eg TSC ri ts Menai a FSi, som mb sie Sie Coy Se'5 use Aan in 0 yp te 11) Sst Ean Brin Muga Va, asim an occa Ent mete aie nue be iti ee er ura EE Ste aan gy neko 112) GEG ats Se sain sti cor Soca mPa EEE yg es Ie Mo as bean, vc Ma, Os 630 op tis) S77 A Sasi! model fer ld ble te stan and is aplcsion to nongeosirary ob sysenn” IEEE Trans ek Teco, Spec Ise on “Fate FCS Techies” 490.3 pr rane Aog on 14) Pert Bit Cmmercaons New York Mein 115) Gtewov sad ML. Mer “Simpied ration of cuage Itubiy Yr cla ae ao sme con. Ler 0 via eae ay 161 ECan, Get snd M, Men, “Ouae proba for Cellar bile va ser Siales anata! Satin and Simic ein” Elect few p 0-01 192 Francesco atear (M'SH-SM'91) was tv io De lop dere Inseam ergosring ‘he Une of Boog, Bologna in 1977 om 17 1980 fe was wih Fondren Up from 1940 wo. 198S, Wie wi Slt Spa, Roma, aye be wae Croup tear of slic found vegan dooms caging. in 17 Ar'became Assrate Prof of Rade Systems 4 te Usvety of Rm Tor Vere rm 1987 98) he was Pret Manage ote sound segment fhe Earapean Das Rely Sy (288. DRS) His research tres lve mbes pera conmunisson ‘gems ahd spread specu sates, Prof Nalin ite coviaor of the 1980 “Pho. Fan” INTEL SAT/Tlspio inna pr andi meer of AEL co (Glorana Emanacle Cruz (92) ws bon in Tene, tym 1968 He mented he Dr. ng ‘ftcops ay 88 sersgce compaty COM DEV (Cage. Or fina, Caney where he wn band Mer Of he tesa sa workng nthe mlites Save scsi gu. Th 199 he Jed the Seite pra coca stems nd seat spec male se aD Corto Cain 9) 4s born oes, Ks, shah He ne Bien se Balogs, ay. in 1986 ‘Sie 1990 be his ck wih ie Depa of ‘leconks, Computer Sse, and Sper ee, ‘sctreaher His man sla rest ae it {fe ldo cellar ttle at syst wth steal enpbass on spect ec. aie ‘Sees tccmigues, nd spe pcan jens ‘Carlo Ferrara ws hr in Rone, Ky 1966 He coed the Dr. leg dee in lector en necting fom Univer oh Ro "Tor erp “Sic 1993, es en with he print lng coe ned Al indie ad personal communion sens, petal emphasis on tlie ste 2 o