The alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment: measurement campaign at the Italian ground stations

Terabit capacity and very high data rates are required for the near‐future broadbandsatellite communication systems, mainly for multimedia services. The increased capac-ity can be obtained by using the larger bandwidth available at higher frequency bands,like Ka and Q/V. However, severe detrimental atmospheric effects impair radio wavesat these bands, which require the extensive use of fade mitigation techniques, suchas link power control, site diversity, or on‐board adaptive power allocation. TheAlphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment was designed and supported by theItalian Space Agency, and implemented by the European Space Agency, to bettercharacterize the atmospheric propagation channel at Ka band and Q band, to supportthe design of future satellite systems. In Italy, 3 ground stations have been installedand are acquiring the Alphasat beacon signals: the 2 ASI main ground stations in TitoScalo (Southern Italy) and Spino d'Adda (Northern Italy) and the La Sapienza‐FUBstation in Roma (Central Italy). The 3 stations cover quite distant locations in Italy,with different climatic characteristics. This paper describes the main features of theexperimental setup in the above stations and presents some examples of measure-ments and results.