Site diversity mitigation techniques for satellite services for KA-band

Ku and Ka-band are in high-frequency range within the frequency spectrum which is typically from 12 to 18 GHz and 26.5 to 40 GHz respectively. This wide range of frequency offers a huge capacity for satellite broadcasting and broadband applications respectively. In addition to huge capacity, operating at this range of high frequency allows smaller antenna size at consumers’ premise. This is due to the fact that the higher the frequency, the higher the antenna gain thus making it possible to reduce the antenna size to the minimum possible while preserving the required availability. However, operating at high frequency is more susceptible to weather conditions. This is due to the nature of its small signal wavelength where signal power can be absorbed by moisture or water droplets along it transmission paths. It will result in signal impairments thus quality of services. The objective of this research is to study the effectiveness of a mitigation technique called “Site Diversity” in enhancing the service availability for services operating at Ka-band frequency. The data are analyzed using ITU-R site diversity gain model, ITU-R diversity improvement factor mode and Hodge site diversity gain model. Data from two earth station sites, one located in Rawang and the other in Cyberjaya were collected and analyzed within the period of this study. The reference satellite used is MEASAT 5 satellite located at 119-degree east longitude. From the analysis it can be shown that availability of services can be increased up to 99.99% when implement site diversity technique