Modeling of joint rain attenuation in earth-space diversity systems using Gaussian copula

In this paper, the modeling of joint exceedance probability of rain attenuation based on Gaussian copula is examined for Earth-space dual site diversity systems. Joint complementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDF) of attenuation are used for satellite communications operating at frequencies above 10 GHz, in order to assess the performance and properly design a site diversity system. The modeling of joint CCDF of rain attenuation with Gaussian copula function is tested based on existing experimental data for different sites with various distances, elevation angles, baseline orientations, operating frequencies etc. The performance analysis shows that Gaussian copula can be used for modeling of joint CCDF of rain attenuation. Moreover, it is shown that especially for small separation distances and for low elevation angles, Gaussian copula gives significantly better results compared to previously proposed Archimedean copulas.