Testing procedure for propagation parameters prediction methods

The Earth-space communication systems design involves the assessment of the major propagation parameters affecting the radio channel performance. In the last years a big effort in data collection and analysis has been carried out by many researches world-wide. This activity allowed both the creation of extensive data banks containing many experimental measurements and the assessment of several prediction methods. The basic principles of these methods and the testing procedures against the available data is outlined in this paper, with particular reference to the ITU-R (ex CCIR SG5) data bank and evaluating criteria.