Multiple Gateway Transmit Diversity in Q/V Band Feeder Links

Design of high bandwidth and reliable feeder links is central towards provisioning new services on the user link of a multibeam satellite communication (SatCom) system. Towards this, utilization of the Q/V band and an exploitation of multiple gateways (GW) as a transmit diversity measure for overcoming severe propagation effects are being considered. In this context, this contribution deals with the design of a feeder link comprising N + P GWs (N active and P redundant GWs). Towards provisioning the desired availability, a novel switching scheme is analysed and practical aspects such as prediction based switching and switching rate are discussed. Unlike most relevant works, a dynamic rain attenuation model is used to derive analytically average outage probability in the fundamental 1 + 1 gateway case. Building on this result, an analysis for the N +P scenario leading to a quantification of the end􀀀to􀀀end performance is provided. This analysis aids system sizing by illustrating the interplay between the number of active and redundant gateways on the chosen metrics : average outage and average switching rate.