Efficient simulation of a non-Gaussian dispersive radio channel

It is widely accepted that on-air testing of HF transmission systems is time consuming and costly. Consequently, the use of channel simulators and recorder-reproducers has received increasing interest over recent years as a flexible, low-cost approach to comparative performance evaluation. Although numerous simulation models have been developed, the Gaussian-scatter model, proposed and experimentally confirmed by Watterson et al. (1970), has been the most widely used approach for simulation purposes. We present a novel implementation of the traditional Gaussian-scatter model, which has a low-complexity architecture suitable for real-time simulation, and provides an expanded noise model encompassing both Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise, together with time-varying narrowband interference.