Satellite Communication

Basic Satellite System

A satellite is basically any object that revolves around a planet in a circular or elliptical
path.

A communication satellite is like a big microwave repeater in the sky.

A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite

stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. Modern communications
satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary orbits, Molniya orbits, other
elliptical orbits and low (polar and non-polar) Earth orbits.

For fixed (point-to-point) services, communications satellites provide a microwave radio

relay technology complementary to that of fiber optic submarine communication cables.
They are also used for mobile applications such as communications to ships, vehicles,
planes and hand-held terminals, and for TV and radio broadcasting, for which application
of other technologies, such as cable, is impractical or impossible.
Basic Satellite System
 Satellite for Communications
• Economical Long Distance Communications
– The cost of transmitting information via satellite is essentially independent of distance. It is
the same for two points 5000 or 100 km apart

• Broadcast Capability
– Satellites can be used as broadcast transmitters, relaying signals from one transmit earth
station to multiple receive earth stations within the coverage area. Conversely, satellites can
receive signals from multiple transmitting stations for relay to a central station.

• Wideband Capability
– Satellite repeaters are usually wideband devices that can transmit large amounts of
information. Tens of megahertz of bandwidth are available in each repeater. Each repeater
may be used between any two points within the coverage of the satellite.

• Broad Coverage
– the satellite can serve any station within view of its antenna. about 42% of the earth's
surface is within view of a geostationary satellite.

• Freedom from Natural Barriers

– Satellites overcome natural barriers such as mountains, cities, deserts, or oceans.
 Satellite for Communications
• Better Coverage for Rural and Undeveloped Areas
– A satellite can provide the same type of service to both large cities and rural areas. Satellite
communications accelerate the flow of industry and data processing facilities to rural areas.
The satellite can serve both developed and undeveloped areas.

• New Markets
– Satellites have encouraged the development of specialized television networks for cable
television, payTV, ethnic and language groups, religious groups, sports, and news gathering,
for example.

• New Common carriers

– The availability of satellites has led to the emergence of new common carriers. Other
common carriers may lease one or more repeaters and sublease individual circuits or
television channels. The resulting competition leads to increased market expansion.

• New Services
– Communications satellites can pick up data from a network of sensors, and relay it to one
point for data analysis. The same satellite can then send the results (such as earthquake
warnings) back to the source areas.

• Customer's Premises Services

– Small earth stations with small anten-nas can provide access to databases, branch offices,
and management infor-mation systems. These stations are known as very small aperture
terminals (VSATs). These terminals are usually located on the customer's premises.
 Disadvantages of Satellites
• Launching satellites into orbit is costly.

• Satellite bandwidth is gradually becoming

used up.

• There is a larger propagation delay in satellite

communication than in terrestrial
communication.
 Technology Comparison
Satellite communication
1. Star topology.
2. Satellite is a critical component;
its failure results in total failure
of the network.
3. Broadcast in nature.
4. Large distances and hence large
time delays are involved, typi-
cally 270 ms for one way com-
munication.
5. Microwave communication.
6. Susceptible to weather condi-
tions at higher bands.
7. Satellite life span is typically 7 years
Terrestrial communication
Mesh topology.
Node failures do not affect the
entire network. The network is
fault tolerant.
Point-to-point in nature.
Distances are relatively small and
hence the time delay is small,
typically 40 ms for intercontinental
calls.
Microwave, cable or optical fibre
communication.
Cable or optical fibre communi-
cation is insensitive to weather
conditions.
Life span is large, typically 30 years
 Service Types
• Fixed Service Satellites (FSS)
– a radio communication service between specified fixed points on the Earth's surface
when one or more satellites are used
– The main signals transmitted via the links of FSS are telephony, telegraphy, facsimile,
data transmission, television and sound programs.
• Example: Point to Point Communication

• Broadcast Service Satellites (BSS)

– Television and sound programs are routed directly in the down links to the general
public reception
• Example: Satellite Television/Radio
– Also called Direct Broadcast Service (DBS).

• Mobile Service Satellites (MSS)

– Telecommunications satellites were first used to set up links over very long distances, as
the financial penalty of using satellites for short distances when compared to
conventional methods, was too large. The first fixed-point links were therefore
intercontinental.
• Example: Satellite Phones
 Satellite Services
Fixed
Broadcasting
Mobile
Land Mobile
Maritime Mobile
Aeronautical Mobile
Intersatellite
Radiodetermination
Earth exploration
Space Research
Meteorological
Amateur
Radionavigation
Aeronautical Navigation
Standard Frequency and time Signal
 Frequency Bands
• In any communication satellite, one or more
transponders are used to receive, amplify and
retransmit the incoming signals.

• The upward and downward transmission frequencies

are chosen to be different to avoid interference.

• Three frequency bands are allocated for commercial

satellite communication
 Frequency Bands
Band Down link Up link frequency Bandwidth
frequency
C 3.7-4.2 GHz 5.925 - 6.425 GHz 500 MHz

Ku 10.9-11.7 GHz 14.00-14.5 GHz 500 MHz

Ka 17.7 - 21.2 GHz 27.5 — 31.0 GHz 3.5 GHz

• The C band is widely used. A satellite commonly contains 12 transponders having BW

of 36MHz each. The whole satellite has a BW of 500MHz.
• Recent satellites are designed to operate in the Ku band.
• Heavy demand for bandwidth in the C and Ku bands is pushing up the frequency of
operation to Ka band and above.
• At higher frequency attenuation is more. Hence more power will be required for signal
transmission to ensure that it reaches the destination with the required minimum
power. Higher power requirements will involve use of high power amplifiers with high
ratings and heat sinks. This will increase weight and power supply ratings of the
equipments. This does not make any difference to the ground station. But for the
satellite this will result in higher power consumption, which will reduce its efficiency.
Hence the ground station uses high power equipments to generate high frequency
which can reach the satellite.
 Functional block diagram of a transponder

Downlink signal at 4GHz

Diplexer
Uplink signal at 6GHz

Diplexer
Low Noise Amplifier

Band pass Down Band pass

filter Converter filter

TWT Amplifier
Local Oscillator
Functional block diagram of an earth station
 Factors in satellite communication
• Other impairments to satellite communication

– The distance between an earth station and a satellite (free

space loss).

– Satellite Footprint:
• The satellite transmission’s strength is strongest in the center of
the transmission, and decreases farther from the center as free
space loss increases.

– Atmospheric Attenuation caused by air and water can

impair the transmission. It is particularly bad during rain
and fog.
 Footprint
• Satellites process microwaves with bidirectional antennas
(line-of-sight).

• Therefore, the signal from a satellite is normally aimed at a

specific area called the footprint.

• The signal power at the center of the footprint is maximum.

• The power decreases as we move from the footprint center.

• The boundary of the footprint is the location where the power

reaches a predefined threshold.
Satellite Footprint
LEO satellites are much closer to the earth than GEO satellites, ranging from 500
to 1,500 km above the surface.

LEO satellites don’t stay in fixed position relative to the surface, and are only
visible for 15 to 20 minutes each pass.

A network of LEO satellites is necessary for LEO satellites to be useful

Constellations entail several tens of satellites (20-70), increasing with decreasing

altitude and with increasing minimum elevation angle.

Propagation delay is of the order of 5-35 ms.

Satellites are visible for a short period of time, typically 10-15 minutes. Examples
of these orbits are Iridium, Globalstar.
 LEO
• Advantages
– A LEO satellite’s proximity to earth compared to a GEO satellite gives it
a better signal strength and less of a time delay, which makes it better
for point to point communication.
– A LEO satellite’s smaller area of coverage is less of a waste of
bandwidth.

• Disadvantages
– A network of LEO satellites is needed, which might be costly
– LEO satellites have to compensate for Doppler shifts cause by their
relative movement.
– Atmospheric drag effects LEO satellites, causing gradual orbital
deterioration.
 Little-LEO
• A small non-geostationary satellite which operates in Low
Earth Orbit, providing mainly mobile data services. The little
LEOs operate under 1 GHz.

• Important proposed projects under "Little-LEO" category are:

– GONETS, proposed by Smolsat (Moscow).
– LEOSAT, proposed by Leosat Inc.
– ORBOCOMM, proposed by Orbital Sciences Inc. and Teleglobe Inc.
– SAFIR, proposed by OBH-System (Germany).
– STARSYS, proposed by Starsys Global Positioning Inc.
– TAOS, propose by CNES (France).
– TEMISAT, proposed by Telespazio (Italy),
– VITASAT, proposed by Volunteers in Technical Assistance Inc.
 Big LEO
• A larger non-geostationary satellite which operates in
Low Earth Orbit, providing mainly mobile telephony
services.

• Many of the new proposed 'global mobile phone'

services will be provided by this type of satellite.

• They are located between 700km-1,500km from the

Earth.

• The big LEOs operate between 1 and 3 GHz.

 Big LEO
• A number of ambitious projects have been projected and
most important of those are ("Big LEO"):

– IRIDIUM, launched by Motorola Inc.

– GLOBALSTAR, proposed by Loral Inc. and Qualcomm.
– ARIES, proposed by Constellation Communications Inc.
– CALLING, proposed by Calling Communications Inc.
– ELLIPSO, proposed by Ellipsat Inc.
– ODYSSEY, proposed by TRW Inc.
– TELEDESIC, proposed by Teledesic Corporation.
– ARCHIMEDES, proposed by European Space Agency (ESA).
– PROJECT 21, proposed by INMARSAT, and was under study with two
options, one based on ICO orbits and the other based on GEO
satellites. Finally, ICO was chosen
 Globalstar
• Multiple Coverage
– 48 SATELLITES
– 10° ELEVATION

• At LATITUDE 40°:
– At least 4 satellites for 38% of time
– At least 3 satellites for 87% of time
– At least 2 satellites always visible

• At least one satellite always

visible for LATITUDE < 70o
Globalstar's satellite footprints
 Teledesic
• Teledesic is a system of satellites that provides fiber-optic-link
(broadband channels, low error rate, and low delay)
communication.

• Its main purpose is to provide broadband Internet access for

users all over the world.

• It is sometimes called "Internet in the sky."

• The project was started in 1990 by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates;
later, other investors joined the consortium.

• The project was scheduled to be fully functional in 2005.

 Teledesic Constellation
• Teledesic provides 288 satellites in
12 polar orbits with each orbit
hosting 24 satellites.

• The orbits are at an altitude of

1350 km.

• Transmission occurs in the Ka

bands.

• Uplink: up to 155 Mbps

• Downlink: up to 1.2 Gbps
 Teledesic Communication
• The system provides three types of communication.

– Intersatellite communication allows eight neighboring satellites to communicate

with one another.

– Communication is also possible between a satellite and an earth gateway station.

– Users can communicate directly with the network using terminals.

• The earth is divided into tens of thousands of cells. Each cell is assigned a
time slot, and the satellite focuses its beam to the cell at the corresponding
time slot.

• The terminal can send data during its time slot. A terminal receives all
packets intended for the cell, but selects only those intended for its address.
 VSAT Network
• A very small aperture terminal (VSAT), is a two-way satellite ground station with a
dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range
from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Data rates typically range from 56 kbit/s up to 4 Mbit/s.
VSATs access satellite(s) in geosynchronous orbit to relay data from small remote
earth stations (terminals) to other terminals (in mesh topology) or master earth
station "hubs" (in star topology).
• At the Very Small Aperture Terminal a lower performance microwave transceiver
and lower gain dish antenna (smaller size) is used.

• VSAT networks are arranged in a star based topology.

• Ideal for centralized networks with a central host (Banking institutions with
branches all over the country).
VSAT Network