Tropospheric propagation forecasts for smart gateways switching algorithms

The use Q/V band spectrum for the feeder links of high throughput satellites and the need to cope with the significant propagation impairments at those frequencies motivate the development of smart diversity techniques. Those techniques aim at improving the availability level of the overall feeder link with a limited level of redundancy. The combinatorial gain of availability provided by those techniques can be obtained only if efficient switching methodologies are developed, performing the best trade-off between system flexibility and channel prediction accuracy. This paper proposes various propagation forecast mechanisms for the control of switching between gateways in smart diversity, corresponding to various system assumptions in terms of required anticipation time for the triggering of the switches. The performances of those algorithms are then assessed against real attenuation and meteorological data, to evaluate the performance degradation with regards to an idealized case.