In this paper, a recursive digital filter realization for an ionospheric channel model is proposed. This realization is in the form of a cascade of identical second-order all-pass filters, and is determined by only three parameters; two coefficients of an all-pass section, and the number of sections. The values of these parameters are optimized by a nonlinear optimization algorithm called the "downhill simplex method", so that the resulting time delay function closely approximates that of the ionospheric channel model. Comparing with the nonrecursive digital filter realization, it can be shown that the proposed recursive-digital-filter-realization is advantageous in points of view for the numbers of filter coefficients and the realization.