Evaluation of a site diversity model for satellite communications systems

Site diversity is one method for reducing rain outages on earth-satellite communications links. A previously proposed prediction model for dual-site diversity, based on simple meteorological concepts that relate diversity performance to single-path rain attenuation, is evaluated against a compilation of 23 measured data sets. Prediction errors for the model are established and then discussed in terms of path elevation angle and rain convectivity. Possible refinements to the model are also mentioned.