Comparative Study of Different Coverage Models for High Altitude Platform

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

This paper is devoted to study the footprint analysis of High Altitude Platform Cellular Communications, geostationary high altitude (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites using three models: The first one is an approximated model for flat earth, which can be used in small coverage area or in case of high elevation angle and the correction of this model takes into consideration the curvature of the earth to correct the error of flat earth and gives good results for the minor and major axes of elliptical footprint. The second model of the spot beam depends on the inclination angle and gives good results compared to the HAP results of the first model. Also it gives good result for LEO satellite with elevation angle between 40 to 99 degrees. Also the second model was developed to give HAP good results for major and minor elliptical axes to calculate the beamwidth. The third model obtains the coverage area diameter with zero inclination angle and can be used for satellites at different LEO and GEO orbits and gives good results for a wide range altitude from 500 km to 36,000km, which is identical with practical results given by [12].

[1]           SkyStation www.skystation.com, August 2005
[2]           S.Karapantazis and F.-N. Pavlidon, "Broadband communications VIA high altitude platforms: ASURVEY", IEEE communications surveys& Tutorials, first Quarter 2005, pp. 1-31, 2005.
[3]           Airship Technologies Group, www.atgplc.com, August 2005
[4]           Alejandro Aragon-Zavala, Jose Luiscuevas-Ruiz and Jose Antonio Delagado-penin”High Altitude Platforms for wireless communications”, Wiley&Sons, 2008.
[5]           Basher EL-Jabu and Raymond Stele, "Cellular communication using Aerial platforms", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL.50, NO.3, MAY 2001.
[6]           Moadmad Dessowky , Hamdy Sharshar and Yasser ALbagory , "Footprint Analysis for HAPS cellular communication", China-Japan joint Microwave conference(CJMW2006),August23-25,2006, Chengdu, China.
[7]           Basher EL-Jabu and Raymond Stele, "Effect of positional in stability of an Aerial platform on its CDMA performance", in proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology Conf., vol.5, Sept. 1999, pp. 2471-2475.
[8]           M. Dessouky, H. Sharshar, Y. Albagory, "Design of High Altitude Platforms Cellular Communications", Progress In Electromagnetic Research, PIER 67, pp. 251-261, 2007.
[9]           M. Dessouky, H. Sharshar, Y. Albagory, "Geometrical Analysis of High Altitude Platforms Cellular Footprint", Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 67, pp. 263-274, 2007.
[10]       Bashir El-Jabu, Raymond Steele, Fellow, "aerial platforms: A promising means of 3G communications" IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 49, May 1999.
[11]       Marina Mondin, Fabio Dovis, and Paolo Mulassando, "on the use of HALE platform as GSM base stations," IEEE personal communications, April 2001.
[12]       Occasional Papers, http://www.amacad.org  2008.
[13]       AeroVironment, www.aerovironment.com, October 2007.
[14]       Lindstrand Balloons Ltd, www.lindstrand.co.uk, August 2007.