FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

Picture 1. The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Spectrum Organization

What is the frequency spectrum?

Frequency spectrum is an alternative name for electromagnetic spectrum – the
entire range from the lowest frequency to the highest. The frequency is the
number of oscillations per second of an electromagnetic wave, measured in hertz
(Hz) or multiples of hertz (e.g. kHz, MHz, GHz).

The EM spectrum is commonly divided into the following bands of frequencies:

• Radio 100 – 109 Hz (1 Hz – 1 GHz)

• Microwave 9 11
10 – 10 Hz (1 GHz – 100 GHz)

• Infra Red (IR) 1011 – 1015 Hz (100 GHz – 1000 THz)

• Visible 14 14
3.95x10 – 7.69x10 Hz (red violet)

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• Ultra Violet (UV) 1015 – 1017 Hz

• X-rays 1017 – 1019 Hz

• Gamma-rays 1019 – 1023 Hz…..

NB. All divisions and ranges are approximate (e.g. the microwave band is more
accurately defined as 1 GHz -–300 GHz). Satellite communications frequencies
are predominantly in the microwave band, part of what is known as the ‘Radio
Frequncy’ (RF) spectrum, which itself is defined as covering 3x103 – 3x1011 Hz (3
kHz – 300 GHz).

All electromagnetic radiations travel at the speed of light. The relationship

between frequency and wavelength is f = c/λ, where f is frequency (Hz), λ is

wavelength (m) and c is the speed of light (3x10 m/s). 8

Key to prefixes:
K = kilo (103); M = mega (106);
G = giga (109); T = tera (1012)

How is the RF spectrum devided?

The radio frequency (RF) spectrum has been devided into the following bands by
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) [see Picture 1. The Electromagnetic

Spectrum]:

• VLF 3 to 30 kHz Myriametric waves

• LF 30 to 300 kHz Kilometric waves
• MF 300 to 3000 kHz Hectometric waves
• HF 3 to 30 MHz Decametric waves
• VHF 30 to 300 MHz Metric waves
• UHF 300 to 3000 MHz Decimetric waves
• SHF 3 to 30 GHz Centimetric waves
• EHF (lower) 30 to 300 GHz Milimetric waves
• EHF (upper) 300 to 3000 GHz Decimilimetric waves

Key:
F = frequency L = low; M = medium; H = high
V = very; U = ultra; S = super; E = extra.

Which parts do satellites use?

Satellite communications frequencies are mainly in the SHF band, but UHF and
EHF are also used. The sub-bands are given letter designations as follows [ see
Picture 3. Satellite Frequency Bands]:

• L-band 1 – 2 GHz
• S-band 2 – 4 GHz
• C-band 4 – 8 GHz

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• X-band 8 – 12 GHz
• Ku-band 12 – 18 GHz
• K-band 18 – 27 GHz
• Ka-band 27 – 40 GHz

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These designations are intended as a guide to common usage in the satellite
communications industry and should not be taken as definitive for all
applications. They follow the IEEE Radar Standard 521, which also defines 0.3
GHz – 1 GHz as UHF (at variance with the ITU definition) and 40 GHz – 100 GHz
as the ‘millimeter-waveband’ (mm-wave). Frequencies above 40 GHz are also
referred to as O-band.

Picture 2. ITU Region

How is the spectrum organized?

At a global level, the frequency spectrum is administered by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), based in Geneva, Switzerland. The ITU allocates
and co-ordinates radio frequencies for communications, earth observation and
science spacecraft, and any other space system that communicates using radio
frequencies. It also allocates and co-ordinates geo-stationary orbital elements for
a variety of spacecraft.

Satellite operators apply to the ITU for the frequencies and orbits they intend to
use, and the ITU publishes the details for comment. In the USA, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) performs a similar function. If no conflicts

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with existing or planned systems are identified, the resources are allocated to the
operator.
For frequency allocation, the ITU has divided the world into three regions [see
Picture 2. ITU Regions]:

• Region 1 – Europe, Africa, the CIS and Mongolia

• Region 2 – the Americas and Greenland
• Region 3 – Asia, Australasia and the Pacific

The process of frequency co-ordination ensures that satellite and terrestrial

communications systems operate without mutual interference. It entails the
submission of details of channel frequencies, satellite orbital position,
geographical location of the intended earth station and other parameters such as
transmitter power and data format. An interference analysis is performed to
decide whether the proposed service will interfere with existing communications
links, and vice versa.

ITU service divisions

The ITU defines a number of different satellite services. [see frequencies allocation for

ITU Satellite Services]

Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS)

System operating within the FSS tend to use relatively large earth station at
specified fixed points. This includes trunk or gateway stations up to 30 m in
diameter used with systems such as Intelsat or Inmarsat. Smaller stations, down
to about 2 m in diameter, are used for VSAT (very small aperture terminal)
services.

Broadcasting-Satellite Service (BSS)

Systems operating within the BSS provide TV and/or radio services direct to the
consumer using antennas generally much less than 2 m in diameter. By
convention, if the service uses BSS frequencies, it is known as DBS (direct
broadcasting by satellite); if it uses FSS frequencies, it is called DTH (direct to
home).

Mobile-Satellite Service (MSS)

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System operating within the MSS provide links between mobile earth stations or
portable receivers and one or more orbiting spacecraft. MSS includes maritime
mobiles (MMSS), aeronautical mobiles (AMSS) and land mobiles (LMSS).
Other satellite services include:
• Inter-Satellite Service (ISS) for links between satellites in orbit
• Radiodetermination-Satellite Service (RDSS) for position location
• Radionavigation-Satellite Service (RNSS) for navigation service

Picture 3. Satellite Frequency Bands

Frequency Band Usage

In the three decades of commercial satellite communications, usage of frequency
bands has grown in response to the need for greater capacity. Most early satellite
systems operated in C-band. Since then, the technology for higher frequencies,
first Ku-band and now Ka-band, has been developed.

Although the use of the bands by space systems is evolving continually, each
band is dominated by particular services:
L-band (1 – 2 GHz): mainly mobile satcoms.
S-band (2 – 4 GHz): historically spacecraft telemetry, tracking and command
(TT&C), but proposed for some satcoms applications.

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C-band (4 – 8 GHz): first band used for commercial fixed satcoms; still widely
used in the USA and in tropical area where rainfall (and thus attenuation) is high.
X-band(8 – 12 GHz): largely reserved for military communications, but
increasingly proposed for commercial satcoms.
Ku-band (12 – 18 Ghz): second band to be developed for commercial fixed
satcoms; rain attenuation is higher than in C-band, but can be overcome by
higher radiated power.
K-band (18 – 27 GHz): lower parts of the band are used for Ku-band uplinks (e.g.
12/18 GHz), higher parts for Ka-band downlinks (e.g. 20/30 GHz).
Ka-band (27 – 40 GHz): currently being developed for fixed satcoms, especially
broadband/multimedia applications (because of the wide bandwidths available at
these frequencies). Atmospheric attenuation and rain attenuation relatively high.

Picture 4. Satellite Link Networks

Satellite Operation

How satellite system work – Frequencies

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Communications satellites act as relay stations in space. Signals are transmitted
from the ground to the satellite (the ‘uplink’), process on board the satellite, then
transmitted back to the ground (the ‘downlink’). At its simplest, this ‘processing’
involves amplifying the signal and converting its frequency from the uplink to the
downlink frequency.
Within the operating frequency band the uplink and downlink frequencies are
separated to ovoid interference. Thus typical C-band frequencies are written 4/6
GHz, and Ku-band 11/14 GHz, where the forst figure in each case is the downlink
and the second the uplink. The uplink is almost always the higher figure, since
the greater lossess (due to atmospheric attenuation) at higher frequencies can
be more easily overcome by the earth station than the spacecraft. Satellites can
link networks of ground station in three main ways:
• Point-to-Point: from one station to another
• Point-to-Multipoint: from one station to an unlimited number of independent
receiving stations (e.g. satellite TV broadcasting)
• Multipoint-to Point: from many individual station to a single controlling station
(e.g. environmental data-collection)

Picture 5. Geostationary Orbit

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How satellite systems work – Geostationary orbit (GEO)
Most of the world’s communications satellites and some weather satellites are
placed in geostationary orbit, a circular orbit in the same plane as the Earth’s
equator. Since satellites in GEO circle the Earth in exactly the same time it takes
the Earth to turn on axis (24 hours), they appear to be stationary compared with
the Earth. This means that ground stations do not have to scan across the sky to
track the satellites, and that satellites can be given orbital positions related to
the line of longitude above which they are stationed (e.g. 19o W, 26o E).
Geostationary orbit is commonly abbreviated to GEO or sometimes GSO (for
Geostationary Satellite Orbit or simply GeoStationary Orbit). The term
‘geosynchronous’; in fact GEO is a special type of geosynchronous orbit (i.e.
equatorial with a 24-hour period).

Geostationary orbit parameters

• Height (above Earth’s surface) 35,786 km (22,237 miles)

• Radius (from Earth’s center) 42,164 km (26,200 miles)

• Circumference 264,924 km (164,624 miles)

• Each one-degree slot of orbital space is about 736 km wide (457 miles)

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Picture 6. Other Orbits

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How satellite systems work – Other orbits
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Several proposed constellations of satellites for mobile telecommunications
services will occupy a variety of low-altitude orbits. Some scientific satellites and
all current manned space vehicles are launched to LEO.
LEOs tend to be circular and up to about 1000 km in altitude. They are not
confined to the equatorial plane and may have any inclination from zero to 90
degrees (the higher inclination orbits are termed polar orbits) and may also be
elliptical. Satellites in LEO tend to circle the Earth in about 100 minutes.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)

MEOs lie between LEO and GEO, typically at altitudes between about 5,000 km
and 25,000 km. Circular MEOs are also referred to as intermediate circular orbits
(ICOs).

Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO)

An orbit used particularly by Earth observation satellites, the SSO is a high-
inclination, ‘polar’ orbit synchronized with the Sun so that lighting conditions are
the same for each successive pass over a given area. SSOs have an altitude of
600 – 800 km.

Molniya and Tundra orbits

Molniya Orbit is a highly-elliptical, near-polar orbit used by Russian Molniya
communications satellites. Typical parameters; inclination 63.4o; period 12 hours;
apogee 39,000 km; perigee 1,500 km. A related orbit is the elliptical Tundra Orbit
(apogee 36,000 km; perigee 20,000 km). It is similar to Molniya orbit in that it
covers high latitudes and similar to GEO in that it has a period of 24 hours, which
gives it one apogee instead of the Molniya’s two.

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 Picture 7. Atmospheric Attenuation

Potential Problems

Atmospheric attenuation
All radio signals, whether transmitted by satellites or by terrestrial stations, are
subject to atmospheric attenuation: in other words, their power is diminished by
passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. There are twi main aspects of
atmospheric attenuation which affect satellite communications.

1. Oxygen and water vapour attenuation

This is caused by an interaction between the radio wave and the atmospheric
molecules which results in some of the energy being absorbed by the molecules.
The degree of attenuation is dependent on the radio frequency and greater at Ku-
band (11/14 GHz), for example, than it is at C-band (4/6 GHz). Attenuation is also
dependent on the elevation angle of the satellite from the earth station, because

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the atmospheric path is longer for satellites near the horizon than for those
overhead (the same factor causes stars near the horizon to twinkle). The left-
hand figure shows how attenuation varies with frequency and elevation angle.

2. Rainfall attenuation
This occurs because individual raindrops absorb radio energy and because some
energy is scattered out of the propagation path. Rain attenuation also causes
depolarization. The right-hand figure shows how attenuation varies with
frequency and elevation angle. The graph is based on a precipitation layer of 3
km which, at an elevation of 25 degrees, gives a path-length through rain of
about 7 km – this shows the importance of elevation angle. [ The figure are based on the
recommendations of the CCIR International Radio Consultative Committee]

Interference
As with any telecommunications service, interference between two or more radio
frequency (RF) signals can have serious practical and commercial consequences.
In a satellite communications system, there are three main factors used to
reduce interference:

• The allocation of different frequencies (frequency separation)

• The use of opposite polarisations

• The allocation of widely-spaced orbital positions (angular separation)

With the general increase in satellite systems it has become increasingly difficult
to find sufficient frequency-space to avoid interference, not only between
satellite systems but also between satellites and terrestrial systems (such as
microwave networks). This has led to the development of technology and
equipment for use at the higher frequency bands.
It is also proving difficult to find sufficient orbital positions and the spacing
between systems operating in the same band has been gradually reduced. This
has led to occasional interference problems which have usually been solved
amicably.
However, as the number of competing systems in growth areas such as the Asia
Pacific region increases, interference problems are likely to increase.

Frequency hoarding & paper satellites

Because of the limitations on frequency-space and orbital positions, potential
satellite users have tended to apply to the ITU for resources they either can not

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afford to develop or have no conceivable use for at an outcome of the
telecommunications authorities. Some applicants have abused this policy by
securing resources for their own use and leasing them to commercial operators
for a profit.
More importantly, the policy has led to the ITU being swamped with more
applications than it can handle, causing delays in systems approval and
implementation. A large number of applications are for ‘paper satellites’, which
will never get beyond the design stage, either because they are not required or
because the financing is not available. These paper satellites have caused a
backlog in processing the real applications.
Unfortunately, the ITU has no powers to police the applications of fine delinquent
applicants; it is simply a service organization tasked with the administration of
frequency allocation and co-ordination. The process has operated smoothly in the
past because users have realized that breaking the ‘rules’ will eventually result in
chaos for all users.

Below is the frequencies allocation for ITU satellite services

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