  Next generations of High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems operating a Q/V
band network of gateways (GWs) for the feeder link, need to apply some form of
Smart Gateway Diversity (SGD) to ensure they meet the demanding availability
targets. However, most of the published research on SGD usually resorts to
ideal assumptions that are not realistic for an operational system. To evaluate
in more depth the performance of practical SGD, this paper exploits for the
first time multi-site propagation measurements for a network of six measurement
sites (GWs) at 40 GHz. Based on this, it studies the performance of SGD in
terms of feeder availability and number of switches between GWs taking into
account the climatic region, the switching processing delay, the clustering of
GWs, and the impact of downlink versus uplink frequency in Q/V band. Along the
course, the interplay between propagation aspects and SGD operational aspects
is highlighted.
