Parameter estimation for link adaptation on land-mobile satellite links

Propagation conditions on a land-mobile satellite (LMS) link may change within the round-trip time. While for slowly fading channels the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is the most important figure of merit to adapt the related transmission parameters, this does not hold true for mobile channels in general. Additional information about the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and the Doppler spread of the fading component are typically necessary for successful link adaptation techniques. In this paper, we address carrier recovery as well as estimation of SNR, SIR, and Doppler spread for a Loo-Fontan channel, which is in the open literature frequently considered as a suitable model for LMS links. The focus is on the performance of an estimation framework, which we identified in a precursor study to be appropriate for correlated Rice channels. This developed framework is extended to LF conditions and verified by simulation results.