Protocols for rain fade mitigation using simultaneous X/Ka communications

The Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) offers new wideband MILSATCOM capabilities, especially at Ka-band. Unfortunately, Ka-band is subject to deep rain fades. The WGS satellite offers simultaneous X-band as a potential Ka-band rain fade mitigation path. Antennas are available today which support simultaneous X/Ka-band for rain fade mitigation via frequency diversity. Yet, few operational concepts exist for exploiting this capability. This paper will present network protocol concepts that leverage WGs' advanced X/Ka capabilities and requirements for terminal designs that use frequency diversity rain fade mitigation.