Practical channel simulation model for the non-GEO land mobile satellite (LMS) communications

Issues of channel modeling for the estimation of bit error rate (BER) in a land mobile satellite (LMS) system is described. This paper present a practical time domain computer simulation model suitable for the modeling of LMS channels in rural area over a wide range of elevation angles (EL), which is applicable to the non-geostationary satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth orbit (MEO) as well as in GEO. Channel simulation parameters, that are well fitted to the empirical data in the literature and directly usable in the time domain model, are also presented as a function of the EL. For the validity of the model, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the received signal envelope from computer simulation is compared with one obtained by the numerical integration. As an application, the proposed computer model is tested to get the average BER of a convolutional coded DPSK mobile satellite link using Globalstar data for various EL.