Influence of terrain-induced reflections on the performance of high-capacity digital radio systems

The performance of a high-capacity digital radio system is evaluated in the presence of ground-induced reflections and atmospheric fading. Results indicate that ground reflections significantly contribute to outage even when their amplitude is 20-25 dB below the main signal. A three-path channel model is used to simulate reflections from the terrain and atmosphere. With this model, the group delay suffers extremely rapid phase transitions and the amplitude pattern shows the presence of minima deeper than that produced by either ray alone