Technique for mitigating rain fading in a satellite communications system using quadrature phase shift keying

摘要

A system for data communication between ground stations using an orbiting satellite as a relay includes a technique for avoiding the loss of signals from the satellite during periods of heavy precipitation. Data is communicated from an orbiting satellite to a plurality of earth stations on a single transmission frequency. The data is communicated on two separate transmission channels on that one frequency by using orthogonal channels of a coherent phase quadrature transmission system. The overall data rate on one of the two transmission channels is much lower than the overall data rate on the other of the two channels. The data on the lower data rate channel is less likely to be affected by heavy precipitation occurring in the line of sight between the satellite and the ground station, and the lower data rate channel is thus used to communicate data to a ground station located in an area of heavy precipitation. The lower data rate channel is further used to maintain phase synchronization so that the probability of losing phase synchronization with the signal transmitted by the satellite is significantly reduced.