A STUDY ON X-BAND SATELLITE SYSTEM

T.Nizanthi
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The frequency of X-band is 8-12 GHz. Currently, C-band and Ku-band are mostly used for
video and data transmissions. As the frequency increases it will be more prone to rain
attenuation loses. The higher the frequency, the shorter will be the wavelength. Ku-band is
being obtained for transmission as the C-band is already congested [9*]. Compared to the
Ku-band the transmission on the X-band will be more reliable as it will be less prone to rain
attenuation. The signal strength weakens as it passes through the raindrops. X-band are not
been used for commercial as it is set aside for military and government usage in Unites
States and many other countries. Currently there are 45 satellites which operate in that
band and 60% of them are separated by 4
o
or more [5]. Using the X-band for military
purpose is just a practice as the International Telecommunications Union has allocated the
X-band for a Fixed Satellite Service usage in spite of of what service it is actually used for.
This research is to conduct a study on the factors that can affect the usage of X-band
frequency for commercial usage. Feasibility study is conducted on rain attenuation effects,
gaseous attenuation, scattering and depolarization by hydrometers such as clouds and
precipitation. As each frequency band has wide spectrum, the allocation of the band for
military might not be fully utilized. So this study will help to evaluate the feasibility of X-band
to be used for other purposes also.
The effect of rainfall is most severe in tropical region because of the heavy rainfall intensity.
Moreover, raindrop size distribution also varies according to the geographical location. This
can also influence the total rain attenuation. Analysis on rain attenuation are important for
the study of rain fade as this is most important information in designing the satellite link
budget. The rain fade calculation takes into concern the rainfall data, elevation angle, rain
attenuation, free space path loss, gaseous attenuation, interference, depolarization,
scintillation, system noise and the slant range of an earth station from the satellite.
Rain fall rate are defined to the percentage of the time it is exceeded in any year by rainfall
region. For an example, a rainfall rate of 0.001 percent means that the rainfall rate would be
exceeded about 5.4 minutes in a specific year. On an average rain fall rate, the signal will be
affected two to three minutes for heavy rainfall. Attenuation periods up to fifteen minutes
are usually rare and there will be no significant effect on transmission although the signal
strength may be affected [2]. Service providers like All Asia Television & Radio Company
(ASTRO) should meet or exceed the space segment performance specifications which is
99.9% for Ku-band and 99.5% for C-band services [9*]. This decreases the potential of rain
attenuation affecting our service.
Taking Malaysia as an example, signals in the Ku-band can be attenuated up to 7dB in the
monsoon rainfall intensities. This can cause a total signal blackout of video services during
high rainfalls [1.]
The studies in this paper will be more focused on the downlink budget of the system.
Parameters which are needed for the analysis will be taken into account by taking the
verified value of the parameter from various literature and past research work.

2.0 OBJECTIVE

- To determine the feasibility of using X-band over high rain intensity tropical climate.
- To compare the performance of the satellite using X-band with the other nearest
bands


3.0 CALCULATION OF RAIN FADE MODEL PARAMETERS FROM EXISTING TECHNIQUES
AND MODELS

3.1 Path Loss and Gaseous Attenuation Calculations
The elevation angle of the earth station depends on the longitude of the satellite. The angle
of elevation will reduce with the increase in difference between the latitude or longitude of
the earth station and the satellite for the geostationary satellites [1]. The satellite signal
coverage will be reduced at low elevation angles.
The free space path loss (FSPL) contributes to large signal energy attenuation. It is because
the wavefront spreads as it propagates from the sources. Formula of FSPL is given in [1]
10 10
20log 20log 92.45 FSPL S f = + + (1)
For slant path range, different location of earth stations will give a different slant path
ranges according to its longitude and latitude. Formula to get the slant path range is given as
[1]

3
42, 643.7 10 1 0.29577 (cos cos ) S | o = (2)
where | is the earth station latitude and the o is the difference between the satellite
longitude and the earth station longitude.
Attenuation due to atmospheric gases is small compared to rain attenuation. Attenuation by
the atmospheric gases depends on frequency, elevation angel, altitude above sea level and
water vapor content. For frequencies below than 10GHz, the attenuation due to
atmospheric gases is less than 0.01Db/km. But for frequencies above 10GHz the
atmospheric attenuation starts to increase severely, especially for the low elevation angles
[4]. Even though the atmospheric attenuation in the satellite communication is small, by
including the atmospheric attenuation into the analysis will allow in providing a better result
[1].
Attenuation due to the gaseous absorption on slant path can be estimated using ITU-R
Recommendation P.676-9. The ITU-R presents a detailed line by line summation of the
spectral lines of the water vapor and oxygen.

Figure 2. ITU-Recommendation P.676-9 Specific Attenuation due to Atmospheric gases
3.2 Determination of Depth of Rain
Differences in the frequency location, polarization and rainfall rate varies the rain fade. The
depth of rain fade in dB can be calculated from the formula:

rain R rain
L D =

(3)
where
rain
L is rain loss in Db,
R
is specific attenuation (dB/km) and
rain
D is the path length
through the troposphere in Km.
Details required when calculating the rain attenuation are:
- Latitude and longitude of the earth station to within a degree
- Altitude for the station in km
- Frequency of signal transmission operation
- Polarization of the signal
- Required availability of the satellite circuit.
Depth of rain is the path length through the troposphere and it is measured in kilometers.
Troposphere is the most nearest layer of the atmosphere to the earth and is the layer in
which majority of the rain clouds form. Depth of the troposphere can reach up to 20 km in
the tropic area. The illustration of the depth of rain and the height of rain can be seen in the
figure below [1].

Figure 1. Illustration of the depth of rain and height of rain [1..]
Mean height of the rain above the mean sea level,
rain
h can be obtained from ITU-R P.839-3
[14*]. The
rain
h is illustrated in the Figure 1 above. The
rain
D can be calculated by using the
equation below:

( )
sin( )
rain antenna
rain
h h
D
u

= (4)
where
rain
h is the height of rain in km,
antenna
h is the height of the earth station in km (height
of earth station location above mean sea level) and u depicts the antenna elevation angle
towards satellite in degree. Now the
rain
D value can be replaced into equation (3).
The
R
, specific attenuation (dB/km) can be identified by first finding for the k and o
values using the frequency-dependent coefficients,
H
k ,
V
k ,
H
o and
V
o from the Table 1 of
the ITU-R Recommendation P.838-3. The values of k and o have been determined at
frequencies ranging from 1GHz to 1000GHz for a number of drop temperatures and drop
size distributions [2]. For the values which are not given in the table of ITU-R
Recommendation P.838-3, the k and o coefficients can be found by using the following
equations [1]:
2
4
10
10 10
1
log
log exp log
j
j k k
j j
f b
k a m f c
c
=
| | (
| |
|
(
= + +
|
|
|
(
\ .
\ .

(5)
2
5
10
10
1
log
exp log
j
j
j j
f b
a m f c
c
o o
o
=
| | (
| |
|
(
= + +
|
|
|
(
\ .
\ .

(6)
where f is the frequency expressed in GHz and the
j
a ,
j
b and
j
c are defined in the ITU-
Recommendation P.838-3. The value of
R
, specific attenuation (dB/km) now can be
determined using the equation:

R
kR
o
= (7)
where for the values of k and o coefficients it will be differ according to the polarization.
3.3 Earth Station Parameters
The elevation angles for earth station are calculated using equation below:
1 2 2
cos ( ) / D 1 cos ( )cos ( )
elevation ES SAT ES
R h | o u u

( = +

(8)
where
elevation
| is the angle of elevation, R will be equivalent to 35786 km which is the
distances of the geosynchronous orbit, h will be equivalent to 6378.1 km which is the radius
of the Earth,
ES
o is the latitude of the earth station,
SAT
u is the longitude of the satellite and
ES
u is the longitude of the earth station which we had selected to conduct the experiment
on.
The formula to calculate D is:
( )
2
2 ( ) 1 cos cos( )
ES SAT ES
D h R h R o u u = + (

(9)
3.4 Calculations of C/N
To evaluate the performance of the satellite link a power link budget is used in the study.
The parameter which will be used commonly in the process of studying the performance of
the satellite system is the Carrier-to-Noise Ratio (C/N). The C/N calculated for this study will
be for downlink as only downlink budget is concentrated in this study. The C/N for the
downlink gives the carrier to noise power ratio for the link from the satellite antenna output
to the ground receiver [4]. The equation to find C/N for fair and rainy weathers is shown
below [1]:
( )
10
10log
*a * * *
sat rcv
clear gd ad clear other rcv
C EIRP gain
dB
N FSPL l k T T T B
| |
| |
=
|
|
|
\ .
\ .
(10)

( )
10
10log
* *a * * *
sat rcv
rain rd gd ad rain other rcv
C EIRP gain
dB
N FSPL a l k T T T B
| |
| |
=
|
|
|
\ .
\ .
(11)
where
sat
EIRP stands for Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) in the Space-to-Earth
direction, FSPL is the free space path loss,
rcv
gain is the receiving antenna gain,
ad
l is the
downlink path additional loss and it is taken at the value of 1.174dB, k is the Boltzman
constant where
23 1
1.38 10 k JK

= and B is the bandwidth (Hz). Downlink gas attenuation
and rain attenuation are represented by a
gd
and
rd
a and are respectively expressed in Db.
This a
gd
and
rd
a are obtained from the Annex 2 of ITU-Recommendation P.676-9 [1].








REFERENCES
A.C.M Nuroddin, A.F. Ismail, K.Abdullah, K. Badron, M. Ismail, and W.Hashim Rain Fade
Estimations for the X-Band Satellite Communication Link in the Tropics, International
Journal of Computer and Engineering, Vol 2, July 2013

T.Siva Priya and T.Nizanthi, A Study on the Effects of Rain Attenuation for an X-band
Satellite System Over Malaysia, Progress In Research B. Vol 45, October 2012