Aircraft to Ground-Station C-Band Channel—Small Airport Scenario

Channel effects can severely degrade performance and reliability of a wireless communication system if they are not taken into account. An accurate characterization is indispensable for the proper design and parametrization of such data links. In this paper, the focus is on aircraft to ground station channel sounding and characterization to lay the foundation for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control and non-payload communication (CNPC) link designs. After a comprehensive review of related work, an introduction into the implemented channel sounding principle with the aid of a custom-made sounder is given, followed by a detailed description of the two measurement campaigns at Ingolstadt/Manching airport, Germany. The obtained large-scale fading results are presented, including shadowing and antenna misalignment effects. Then, small-scale fading is discussed by means of K-factors, delay, and Doppler spread statistics. For all evaluations, the recorded data set has been classified to work out and compare the characteristics of typical phases of UAV operation. Implications of the presented analyses on the parametrization of CNPC links are mentioned as well.