A new methodology for estimating the impact of co-channel interference from high-altitude platforms to terrestrial systems

This paper addresses an in-depth analysis of the stratosphere-to-Earth co-channel interference produced by high-altitude platforms (HAPs) and proposes a new methodology for the evaluation of its impact to terrestrial systems in terms of fractional degradation in performance, taking into account parameters such as HAP´s mobility, realistic distribution of azimuth and elevation angles of the terrestrial microwave links (TMLs), and gradual high-altitude platform network (HAPN) loading. Simulations performed for different HAPN configurations, prove that the implementation of the methodology proposed, may lead to a more efficient use of the spectrum shared between the two services.