Measurements and analysis of short-term fading behavior for high-speed rail viaduct scenario

This paper presents a set of 930 MHz measurements conducted along the “Zhengzhou-Xi´an” high-speed rail of China, to characterize short-term fading behavior of the rail viaduct scenario. Three measurement cases covering viaducts with different heights are reported. The analysis results include fade depth (FD), Ricean distribution fit and K-factor modeling, level crossing rates (LCR), and average fade duration (AFD). A small value of fade depth, around 15 dB, is observed. The Ricean distribution offers good fit in this line-of-sight (LOS) propagation scenario, and the K-factor estimated using moment-based method is modeled as a piecewise function, whose break point equals to the reference distance. It is found that the viaduct height H greatly affects the severity of fading and the feature parameters. The results are applicable to the design of high-speed rail communication systems and the modeling of the rail viaduct fading channels.