Antenna diversity, coding and interleaving technologies for low Earth orbit satellite hand-held terminals

A handset for a Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEOS) system is a new type of terminal. In comparison with terrestrial communication systems, LEOS link budget is essentially limited due to the distance between satellites and handsets. This can be partly compensated by utilizing two-element antenna diversity systems at handsets. Antenna diversity systems utilized with and without the coding and interleaving were compared. Correlation between signals received from each antenna element affects the performance of a diversity system. Correlation between signals at a time interval and the adjacent time interval also influences the effectiveness of coding and interleaving, and these are covered in this paper.