Scintillation Effects of Ka-band Frequency on Satellite Application

Abstract

Abstract The satellite communication system is currently congested because of the high demand for data transmission. The Ka-band is a greater range band that can help to solve the issue. However, Ka-band is severely impacted by scintillation at its high frequency. One of the transmitting impairments is scintillation, a sudden fluctuation in the amplitude of the signal and electromagnetic waves, that generates signal attenuation and degradation. In the presence of rain and even under clear skies, scintillation affects the output of Ka-Band. The scintillation prediction model has mostly been evaluated and applied in countries with four-season climates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the Ka-band scintillation data and compare the findings with other existing scintillation models to validate the outcome. For data of one year (2016) at the Ka-Band frequency of 20.2 GHz, this research focused on analysing the tropospheric scintillation from the satellite data. The experimental data from MEASAT 5 were analysed to see the effect of tropospheric scintillation under clear-sky conditions using a dish antenna with a diameter of 7.3 metres and an elevation angle of 68.8°. The satellite signal measurement samples were gathered and filtered using MATLAB to provide clear-sky scintillation. Next, the obtained raw data was converted into readable data. The data was then plotted, and the experimental data was compared to the other models of scintillation. It was essential to evaluate the outcome of the comparison and address which model was most appropriate for tropical climates. Moreover, this project’s cutoff frequency was 0.023Hz, which was computed from the average cut-off frequencies of 12 months in 2016.