Fading prediction on microwave links for airborne communications

Fade depth prediction on airborne line-of-sight communication links is considered in this paper. There is no specific model for this scenario at the moment. The two ray multipath model adapted to a realistic scenario of hilly or mountainous terrain was used to account for flight and terrain geometry, and antenna parameters. Surprisingly, it was found that (i) in many practically important cases the fade depth depends on the path clearance angle only and (ii) the two-ray model predicts roughly the same fade depth dependence on the path clearance angle as the well-known Olsen-Segal model. This may be considered as a theoretical justification, as to the best of our knowledge – for the first time, of the path elevation angle factor in that model.