Modelling satellite channels-a new approach

The authors consider different mathematical models for the error characteristics of satellite channels. They define a descriptive model and four generative models. Two of these are the well-known Gilbert and Fritchman error channel models, while the other two are new Markov models, termed the time-variant (TV) model and the two-layer time-variant (TLTV) model. The Gilbert and Fritchman models, as well as the TLTV model, are compared with the descriptive model and actual channel measurements, obtained by the German PTT on the Olympus 20/30-GHz channel. Block error probabilities and burst error probabilities are compared. For both error types, the TLTV models exhibit the best results.<>