Computer simulations of the effect of angles-of-arrival distributions on the statistical characteristics of a microwave hop

It is demonstrated that multipath seems to follow universal laws which are quite robust to the mathematical and physical assumptions used in simulations. A hypothetical hop is evaluated using statistical input distributions of physical characteristics, namely the ray number distribution, the angles-of-arrival (AOA) distribution and the ray amplitude, and phase and delay distributions which are assumed to be AOA-dependent. Two tests were performed to check the simulation method´s validity, one with a single ray group and the other with three ray groups (a direct, an atmospheric, and a ground-reflected group). It is concluded that the method described allows different hop parameters such as length or antenna aperture to be tested without having to implement specific and costly experiments.<>