Estimation of the Influence of the Dispersion and Diffraction Properties of the Ionosphere on the Transionospheric Channel Bandwidth

A hardware and software complex for estimating the dispersion distortion bandwidth and fading coherence bandwidth in a satellite (transionospheric) radio channel based on the results of GPS-monitoring of the ionosphere are theoretical substantiated and developed. The basis for solving this problem is development of a structural–physical model of the radio channel, which makes it possible to simultaneously take into account the phase dispersion of the wave and diffraction on small-scale inhomogeneities of the ionosphere. Analytical dependences of the dispersion distortion bandwidth and coherence of frequency-selective fading on the mean value and small-scale fluctuations of the total electron content of the ionosphere are obtained. It is shown that under conditions of ionospheric disturbances, the fading coherence bandwidth can be much smaller than the dispersion band. In accordance with the obtained dependences, a structure is developed for building a hardware and software complex for estimating the dispersion and coherence bandwidths of a satellite radio channel based on improvement of the method for GPS monitoring of the total electron content of the ionosphere with small-scale inhomogeneities.