The application of wide area diversity techniques to Ka band VSATs-simulated and experimental observations

Spracklin et al. (1993) reported on the design of a wide area diversity Ka-band VSAT network that has been extensively simulated in software as well as having been constructed and tested using an innovative hardware fade simulator that enables the behaviour of the system under reproducible propagation conditions to be examined. The present paper reports on the performance of the system using both simulated results as well as those taken from a hardware fade simulator. It shows that spatial diversity techniques, when used in conjunction with data networks, can provide Ka band users with significant improvements in service, particularly when reliability and availability are of importance