Cross-Polarization Discrimination Interference Analysis of Alphasat Satellite Measurements in Ka and Q Bands

The implementation of satellite communication systems with a throughput of terabits per second requires the use of the Ka and Q bands and above, which can accommodate radio channel bandwidths in the gigahertz range. In addition, the spectral efficiency of these systems can be increased by using the dual orthogonal polarization mode. At these high frequencies, among other tropospheric phenomena affecting electromagnetic wave propagation, rain attenuation represents the major obstacle in the design of high-frequency satellite communication systems. Furthermore, the depolarization interference caused by raindrops and ice particles degrades the performance of dual-polarized systems. In this paper, the cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) from the beacon measurements of the Alphasat satellite at 19.7 GHz and 39.4 GHz in Ljubljana, Slovenia, are investigated. The complementary cumulative distribution (CCDF) of the one-year XPD measurements is also presented.