A Proposal of a New Satellite Channel Model based on Markov Chains Approach

The study of how the channel affects the communication in a satellite environment, especially in variable conditions, is very important. The advantages of the Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) and the related dynamic adaptations of the various Modulation&Codings (MODCODs) in a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard can only be appreciated in conditions of channel variability. In this paper our attention is focused on a proposal of a satellite channel model that takes into account the attenuation due to rain. Our modeling method is derived from a model, known in literature, provided by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The considered model was created with the help of Matlab and basically consists of two distinct phases: the first, based on the Markov chains, allows to obtain the transition matrix of the states for a given longitude and latitude, while the second, starting from the matrices previously obtained, aims through a polynomial regression, to find a closed formula for the Markov probability, expressed as functions of latitude and longitude.