A ray-based channel model for MIMO troposcatter communications

Abstract

Troposcatter communications provide a good alternative for beyond-Line-of-Sight (b-LoS) communication because it can provide reliable high data rate applications with the advancement in the modem and high power amplifiers. The employment of the high data rate applications with troposcatter communications requires the investigation of the troposcatter channels. However, available channel models for the troposcatter communications are not able to take the non-homogeneities of the air turbulence into account. Therefore, the main motivation of this paper is to develop a ray-based MIMO troposcatter channel model in which the beamwidths of the antennas are divided to small parts and, the associated delay and power of the rays are calculated in order to consider the non-homogeneities and time variations of the channel. Also, in order to show the time varying behaviour of the channel this paper provides the simulation results for the maximum data rate of the channel by using real world measurements first time in the literature.